An LC-130 Hercules of the 109th Airlift Wing is loaded with cargo at Williams Field, Antarctica, Dec. 22, 2025. (Gabriel Enders/N.Y. Air National Guard)
Starlink is helping American airmen stay in touch with loved ones during deployments to one of the most isolated spots on Earth, according to members of the New York Air National Guard working in Antarctica.
Before the low-earth-orbit satellite service came into being, personnel in Antarctica had limited contact with the outside world. At McMurdo Station — the largest U.S. base on the frozen continent — news commonly came from editions of Stars and Stripes printed on computer paper and displayed in the dining facility.
Antarctic internet service has made great strides recently, according to Col. Steven Slosek, commander of the Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing.
Four ski-equipped LC-130 aircraft and 250 airmen from the wing have been supporting operations in Antarctica during the Southern Hemisphere summer research season, which kicked off in October and wraps up this month.
Starlink terminals are a “game changer” in Antarctica, Slosek told Stars and Stripes by phone Jan. 7.
Starlink, a subsidiary of SpaceX and founded by Elon Musk, is a constellation of orbiting satellites that provide internet access from space.
“Folks are able to use their phones (to access the internet),” Slosek said of the Wi-Fi service available to members of his unit in Antarctica. “They are able to have very regular contact with family.”
Troops working at Williams Field, the runway that serves McMurdo, can use about 2 gigabytes of data each week and there’s a possibility of increasing that, perhaps through a paid subscription, Slosek said.
An LC-130 Hercules of the 109th Airlift Wing is loaded with cargo at Williams Field, Antarctica, Dec. 22, 2025. (Gabriel Enders/N.Y. Air National Guard)
The wing tested the $400-a-month internet service at the airfield last season. During this year’s mission it added additional network equipment to allow access to all buildings at Williams Field, Maj. Geoffrey Garrett, the wing’s executive officer, said by email Jan. 31.
Starlink internet service is available at McMurdo, but with many more people there, the service is less accessible, he said by email Feb. 4.
Staff Sgt. Rebekah Johnson, a crew chief with the wing, said she used Starlink internet at Williams Field.
“I was able to make Wi-Fi video calls and use Facebook and YouTube and other music apps without any restriction on performance and no lagging,” she said by email Jan. 28.
Starlink allowed personnel to update gaming systems that wouldn’t work with the older internet service at McMurdo, she said.
Johnson said she has used Starlink to pay bills, do online classes and communicate with people back home and in New Zealand.
“In previous seasons, I was not able to watch any videos for my college classes because they were blocked or were too large of a file to play,” she said.
An entire shift of 30 maintainers, along with around 20 civilian support personnel, were able to use the Starlink service at one time, Johnson said.
“Starlink was an important element to morale and vital to family communications,” she said. “I could carry on life as a normal person and did not have to struggle to communicate back home to family (and) friends and conduct other business as was the case in previous seasons.”
