(Belga) SpaceX, the American astronautics company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, has donated 50 satellite terminals to the Tonga Islands to help them reconnect to the world after a volcano erupted in mid-January, announced Friday the South Pacific archipelago.
SpaceX is providing 50 very small aperture terminals (VSATs) “and we are looking at how we can best use them,” Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni said. The small kingdom, with reduced internet capacity, is also studying offers to increase its bandwidth, “it’s something that we are testing at this very moment,” said the leader. Technical staff from SpaceX and the Tongan government are installing the equipment to be operational as early as next week. The powerful eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano on January 15 had generated a tsunami and caused the rupture of an 840 kilometer cable linking Tonga to Fiji. Mr Sovaleni said he expected temporary repairs on that cable to be completed early next week. (Belga)