Related: Why SpaceX's Starlink satellites caught astronomers off guard SpaceX builds its own Starlink satellites at a company facility in Redmond, Washington. (It also manufactures its own user terminals and ground stations at this location.) Despite still being in beta-testing, SpaceX has granted outside users access to its Starlink network. In August, the company partnered with Washington State to provide emergency responders with reliable internet access. The state is one of several in the Western U.S. that has been devastated by wildfires this year. In August, emergency responders were given several user terminals to connect to the broadband network so that they could have access to reliable internet service to help a region in trouble. Washington State's Emergency Management department thanked SpaceX for the access to the Starlink network on Twitter earlier this month. The tweet also included a look at the user terminals, which Musk has described as a "UFO on a stick" and boasted their simplicity, saying anyone could connect one with ease. According to a report from CNBC, officials in Washington confirmed that the user terminals are incredibly easy to use, with setup taking only a few minutes. Also in August, SpaceX used Starlink to connect the administration building and homes on the Hoh Native American reservation in western Washington to high-speed internet, Tran said. "The Hoh are a Native American tribe living at the mouth of the Hoh river in western Washington state on the Pacific Coast," Tran said. "This remote location had previously hindered access to high-speed broadband, but after the Starlinks were installed the tribe went from practically no connectivity to high-speed internet overnight." "What a difference high-speed internet can make!" Hoh tribe officials wrote on Twitter this month." Our children can participate in remote learning, residents can access health care. We felt like we'd been paddling up-river with a spoon on this. SpaceX Starlink made it happen overnight." SpaceX hopes to roll out coverage to the U.S. and Canada by the end of the year, but that depends on how well the beta-testing phase goes. Astronomical Challenge Despite early reports that Starlink is performing well, the megaconstellation still remains controversial. That’s because it presents a challenge to those studying the night sky. Astronomers rely on dark skies to make critical observations of the universe and its population of stars, planets, and galaxies. When Starlink first launched, it caught many astronomers off guard as it obscured their observations. Starlink satellites typically launch in groups of 60, and as they raise their orbit, they can appear as a bright train of dots marching across the night sky. This train has been spotted by photographers around the world and has even shown up in images captured by massive ground telescopes, making it difficult for scientists to discern if a bright streak across the sky is a star or a Starlink satellite. To help mitigate this, SpaceX is trying to reduce the apparent brightness of its satellites by outfitting them with a sunshield. This special visor helps reduce sunlight from reflecting off the brightest parts of the satellites, namely the antennas.