Space documentary filmmaker David Brody and ProcurAM CEO Andrew Chanin discuss Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origins competing in the Space Race.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet on Monday that Starlink, a worldwide broadband network created by a constellation of satellites, will double customers’ Internet speed to about 300 megabits per second. In addition, Musk said that latency – the time it takes to send data from one point to another – will drop to about 20 milliseconds later this year.
The tweet came in response to a Starlink client that showed speed tests ranging from 77 to 130 megabits per second.
ELON MUSK RECEIVED 4,000 SPACEX WORKERS TO PARTICIPATE IN A COVID-19 STUDY. HERE IS WHAT HE LEARNED.
Musk added in a separate tweet that Starlink will reach customers “almost everywhere on Earth” by the end of the year, and is working on full global coverage next year, before shifting its focus to “denser coverage”.
“It is important to note that cell phones will always have an advantage in dense urban areas,” said Musk. “Satellites are best for areas of low to medium population density.”
ELON MUSK TIPS ON STARLINK IPO WHEN PREORDERS ARE LIVE
Pre-orders for the Starlink service were available earlier this month for $ 99.
Photo courtesy of Starlink
The company’s website emphasizes that orders are “fully refundable”, but notes that “making a deposit does not guarantee the service”. Orders will be served on a first-come, first-served basis. For some locations on the site, SpaceX says that coverage will not be available until “mid-2021”, while other areas will not be available until 2022.
The complete Starlink kit costs $ 499 and includes a mountable satellite dish, Wi-Fi router and power supply. The service will be offered first in the US, Canada and the UK
DISCOVER FOX BUSINESS ON THE MOVE BY CLICKING HERE
According to a Federal Communications Commission filing, Starlink has launched more than 1,000 satellites in orbit and has more than 10,000 users in the United States and abroad since its “Better Than Nothing” beta was launched nationally and internationally in October.
The Starlink website said beta users can expect to see data speed ranging from 50 megabits per second to 150 megabits per second and latency from 20 milliseconds to 40 milliseconds in most locations in the coming months, as the company continues to expand your coverage.
The FCC lawsuit noted that the Starlink service is “reaching and exceeding the throughput of 100/20 megabits per second (‘Mbps’) for individual users”, while most users observed latency “equal to or less than 31 milliseconds ”.
On February 15, SpaceX deployed 60 additional satellites as part of its Starlink L-17 mission, the eighteenth mission to date. The Falcon 9 rocket appeared to have plummeted into the ocean after failing to land on a platform at sea. The Starlink L-17 was initially planned to launch hours beyond the Starlink L-18, but experienced a series of delays while the launch of the Starlink L-18 went as planned.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT FOX BUSINESS
Musk also hinted earlier this month that Starlink could launch an initial public offering as soon as the aerospace company could “predict the cash flow reasonably well.”
“SpaceX needs to go through a deep abyss of negative cash flow next year or later to make Starlink financially viable. Each new satellite constellation in history has failed. We hope to be the first one that won’t, ”said Musk. “Starlink is an incredibly difficult technical and economic endeavor. However, if we don’t fail, the cost to end users will increase every year.”
Musk’s statement echoed comments made by SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell last year that Starlink is “the right kind of business that we can go ahead and make public”.
SpaceX recently completed a $ 850 million financing round at about $ 419.99 per share, sending the aerospace company’s valuation skyrocketing about 60% to about $ 74 billion, according to reports. The company had already raised $ 1.9 billion in a $ 46 billion valuation in August, its biggest round of financing so far.