One by one, Ukrainian villagers gathered round and held their smartphones out to catch the signal. A nearby Starlink terminal, a small, square-shaped panel facing the sky, was about to beam their voices to a satellite in low Earth orbit, which in turn would relay their calls to relatives hundreds or thousands of kilometers away.
Here, close to the front line in Ukraine’s northeastern provinces, where mobile phone networks are down, you don’t get to make that connection very often, to send that picture that shows you are still OK. Phones rang, people on the other end picked up, conversations—and tears—flowed.
“I don’t think it can be exaggerated how big a
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