Elon Musk
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk spoke to reporters on Wednesday, hours before the company's first full "Starlink" mission.
Starlink represents the company's ambitious plan to build an interconnected internet satellite network, also known as a "constellation," to beam high speed internet to anywhere on the planet. The full Starlink network would consist of 11,943 satellites flying close to the planet, closer than the International Space Station, in what is known as low Earth orbit.
On the call, Musk clarified that SpaceX's recent fundraising rounds "have been oversubscribed." He said SpaceX has enough funding to build and launch enough Starlink satellites to begin using the network.
"At this point it looks like we have sufficient capital to get to an operational level," Musk said.
Musk shared a photo of the 60 Starlink satellites on Saturday after they were packed into the nosecone of the Falcon 9 rocket.
SpaceX "Starlink" satellites stacked inside the nosecone of its rocket before launch.
@ElonMusk on Twitter
SpaceX launched two demonstration satellites in February 2018 but much of the program, and the satellites' design, remained unknown. Although Musk fired the head of the Starlink program in June – a vice president who Jeff Bezos promptly hired to develop a similar network – SpaceX has continued to advance the program quickly. In filings with the Federal Communications Commission, SpaceX noted a few changes to its plans, such as that the first part of Starlink would operate at a "very low Earth orbit." SpaceX also submitted an application this year to operate 1 million "earth stations" in the U.S., key to connecting the satellites to the ground.
Musk said SpaceX will need "6 more launches of 60" satellites per launch to get "minor coverage" for the internet network. A dozen launches, or 720 satellites, are needed "for moderate" coverage," he added.
He warned in a later tweet that "much will likely go wrong" on this first mission.
Starlink is one of the keys to the financing SpaceX's future endeavors. Yet it also is an "absolutely insane" project requiring likely billions of dollars of investment to get operational.
"SpaceX has to be incredibly spartan with expenditures until those programs reach fruition," Musk said in January. Musk blamed layoffs at SpaceX in January in part due to Starlink.
SpaceX is one of several of these constellations in development, competing with Softbank-backed OneWeb, Amazon's Project Kuiper, Canadian operator Telesat and more. These ambitious satellite networks will require intensive capital, with some industry officials estimating costs running as high as $5 billion.
The satellite constellations expect to offer broadband speeds comparable to fiber optic networks, according to federal documents, by essentially creating a blanket connection across the electromagnetic spectrum. The satellites would offer new direct-to-consumer wireless connections, rather than the present system's redistribution of signals.
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