What does ping mean?

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Ping (latency is the technically more correct term) means the time it takes for a small data set to be transmitted from your device to a server on the Internet and back to your device again. The ping time is measured in milliseconds (ms). The ping time is a very important indicator for online games, but for quite normal Internet surfing so the ping time has a considerable effect on the access delay time. The delay is critically influenced both by your Internet access technology and by its utilization level. Note that ping refers to two-way latency (aka round-trip delay), a value relevant to Internet usage. Fast Internet connections have a ping time of less than 2 ms (optical fiber), and slow Internet connections may have ping times of over 50 ms (UMTS access); good ping times range from 5 to 30 ms.

Satellite Internet and even Starlink suffer from higher latency when compared. Starlink satellites will fly at altitudes between 335 and 354 miles up and that's close when it comes to previous satellite internet.  After traveling the 300-plus miles up the data must be transmitted back down doubling that distance and time as well.  Even at the speed of radio precious milliseconds are added for the round trip. Starlink Broadband 50.6ms Average Latency