Elon Musk: SpaceX Plans To Launch 4,425 Satellites Into Orbit To Provide Super-Fast Internet To The World [Video]
ByElon Musk, SpaceX CEO, is planning to launch thousands of satellites that will provide a global coverage of super-fast internet.
Aside from SpaceX's plan to send people to Mars for an eventual colonization, Elon Musk struck a project closer to Earth that would benefit inhabitants of the planet. SpaceX, in a Federal Communications Earlier Earlier this week, Commission (FCC) filing bared plans to send out 4,425 car-sized satellites into space orbit to provide a network of super-fast internet that will cover all corners of the globe.
SpaceX's initial plan is to send out 800 of these satellites to cover and expand the internet in the U.S. The rest of the satellites would follow though no timeline was announced for the launch, CNBC reported. The number of satellite Musk intends to send out is three times more as than what are currently in service in space.
According to Engadget, the SpaceX satellites can provide up to 1 Gbps of high-speed internet around the globe. The project was talked about by Musk back in 2015 wherein he stated that it would cost SpaceX $10 billion and that operation would be done in the company's Seattle office. Google is reportedly one of the earliest investors who put in $1 billion for the program.
SpaceX's FCC filing states: "The system is designed to provide a wide range of broadband and communications services for residential, commercial, institutional, government and professional users worldwide."
The project is being praised for the potential it brings to connect two-thirds of the planet who currently have no access to broadband internet services, though critics suggest that the move is primarily motivated by private gains, namely Google and Facebook.
Aside from providing details about SpaceX's plans to deploy the internet satellites, The FCC filing also bared how much control stake Musk has over SpaceX. The document revealed he has a 54 percent stake in SpaceX that is more than twice his shareholdings in Tesla pegged at 22 percent.
