Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Starlink

Starlink, the high-speed, low latency satellite internet service operated by SpaceX, has been in operation since late 2020. Now that Starlink has some history under its belt, I thought it would be fun to look back and remember some of the fun things they have done along the way.

Starlink loves easter eggs and hidden details. If you aren’t familiar with the term easter egg, it’s basically an unexpected or hidden feature that software developers add into a program. Not only do the developers have a bit of fun creating the easter eggs, the end users also get a nice surprise when they eventually find one. This is a list of my 10 favorite Starlink easter eggs and fun facts.

1. Microsoft “Clippy” parody in the Starlink app

This one goes way back to the early beta testing phase of Starlink. In late 2020, Starlink had launched less than 1,000 of their satellites for the service. But they had enough to support several thousand beta testers.

The Starlink app is where users manage their internet service. In early versions of the iPhone and Android app, Starlink included a fun easter egg that beta testers discovered pretty quickly.

Starlink included an image within the app files of “Dishy”, a parody of the famous “Clippy” assistant in older Microsoft Office software. When a user found Dishy in the app, they could even print out the character. It’s even described as a “fun secret feature” when found!

Starlink's dishy character easter egg

2. The meaning behind the Starlink router graphic

If you have a Gen 2 or Gen 3 Starlink system, you might have noticed the graphic on the front of the Wifi router. It’s actually an orbital transfer ellipse. This is a maneuver that spacecraft can use to transfer from one orbit to another. In this case, the graphic is an orbital transfer ellipse from Earth to Mars.

Starlink is operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company. Elon Musk and SpaceX have plans to eventually colonize Mars, so the Earth to Mars orbital transfer is an important part of the company’s mission.

Starlink Wifi routers

3. Starlink Action Figure

SpaceX used to sell a Starlink action figure set on their website. For $40 you got a complete miniature Starlink system. The kit contained a Gen 2 Actuated dish, router, and two mounts.

If you watch my YouTube channel you might spot my Starlink Action Figure in some of my videos!

Starlink Action Figure set

4. Starlink warranty doesn’t cover dinosaurs

Another Starlink easter egg that you might not know about is found in the warranty book that customers receive with their dish. Under the section on lightning protection, Starlink explains that the warranty does not cover damage due to dinosaurs.

5. Secret message when connecting via SSH

SSH is a network communication protocol often used by IT professionals. In some cases, computer and electronics enthusiasts also use it to talk to their devices. SSH is usually performed in a command prompt application, with a basic text interface.

If you attempt to establish an SSH connection to a Starlink router, you find secret message. The easter egg is a SpaceX logo made out of text along with a parody of the Bee Movie script meme.

Starlink router SSH message

6. App developer mode easter eggs

If you go into the developer mode of the Starlink app (tap the bottom Starlink logo repeatedly), you can play around with elements of the user interface. In older versions of the Starlink app, you could select Custom in the developer menu, and scroll down to GetClients section. A list of several test clients were listed. Several of them were references to movies and other pop culture.

My favorite was a reference to “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”. The name of the test Starlink device was “Infinite Improbability Drive”, which is “a wonderful new method of crossing interstellar distances in a mere nothingth of a second”.

Starlink client list easter egg in developer mode

7. Easter egg on the power supply bracket

Sometimes easter eggs can be found in the physical world. The Starlink High Performance hardware kit includes a bracket for the power supply. If you flip the bracket over, you notice the “cats on a Starlink dish” reference is molded into the bracket. It’s the same design found on the stickers that SpaceX sells.

If you aren’t familiar with the Starlink dish and cats reference, there was a viral picture going around social media in the early days of Starlink which showed cats sitting on top of a Starlink dish to stay warm in the snow. Starlink dishes generate heat, so the cats found a cozy spot to get some rest!

8. The original dish was officially named “Dishy McFlatface”

SpaceX gave the name “Dishy McFlatface” to the original round Starlink dish, as you can see from the installation instructions sent to customers. The name is a parody of “Boaty McBoatface”. Online polls to name things in this fashion have become an internet meme.

To this day, Starlink and their customers still refer to the newer versions of the dish as “Dishy”. Perhaps a reference to the easter egg from the app I showed earlier, or maybe just a shorted version of Dishy McFlatface. Either way, now you know the full story behind the nickname!

Starlink manual showing Dishy McFlatFace name

9. “Better Than Nothing Beta”

Before opening up orders to the public, Starlink allowed select customers to participate in the beta testing phase of the service. Since many rural customers around the globe were desperate for high speed internet access, thousands signed up.

Starlink officially named it the, “Better Than Nothing Beta”. Customers were warned that performance would be inconsistent at times, and that frequent service interruptions could occur. Living up to its name, customers were paying for an internet service that was better than what they already had, which was usually nothing.

Starlink Gen 1 Round Beta Dish

10. Starlink mentions Mars in the Terms of Service

Most people don’t read legal documents like the Terms of Service. But if you read the Starlink’s, you’ll find the final easter egg on my list.

In section 11 of the document, Starlink explains that parties must recognize Mars as “a free planet” and that, “no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities”. This section of the terms of service also mentions providing Starlink services on Earth’s moon, on Mars, and in transit to Mars.

Like the orbital transfer ellipse on my list, this is a fun reference to Starlink’s parent company SpaceX, and their mission of colonizing Mars.

Starlink terms of service showing Mars easter egg

YouTube video

Final thoughts

I hope you had as much fun reading these ten fun facts and easter eggs! I had a ton of fun finding and writing about them. Even if you weren’t around to find the “Dishy” easter egg yourself, it’s fun to look back at Starlink’s history.

So, how many of these did you know already? Are you aware of an easter egg or interesting fact that you think should be included on the next list? Let me know in the comments below!



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8 Comments

  1. You have a sometimes informative site that is often totally superfluous as this article was. I learned early on that if anything you published was difficult to tell the interesting from the superfluous it didn’t do any good to ask questions. Comments and questions are into space and forgotten. Thank you for being interesting enough to make me read all articles; this wasn’t one of them. Lastly, why ask for email addresses at the end of each article when you obviously have it or I wouldn’t have received it? Another question I know won’t be answered. I’m happy for you that you enjoyed writing the article.

    1. The newsletter form is automatically inserted below every post, regardless of subscription status. There is no simple way of telling if a visitor is a current newsletter subscriber. I would have to implement an account/login system which most would not care to use, or put some additional cookies in place which most browsers would block anyway.

  2. Elon should be issued a halo for all he has done for disaster relief and wartorn countries. How many other corporations can say they have helped bearly as much?

  3. I wonder, how many like me did not realise what they had signed up to when they ‘ticked’ the terms of service.
    Now going to study the whole thing to make sure when I read ‘Subscription’ it did not say ‘Conscription’
    🙂

    1. Saw that on my Gen 3 router! Did not have a good picture handy, but I might have to grab one and work it into this list. Pretty cool stuff, thanks for sharing!

    1. Those are likely due to the advertisements that try to load on the page. They are harmless, but you can run browser extensions like AdGuard or uBlock Origin if you are worried about them. Virtually every website has cookies and other types of trackers.