SpaceX plans to build a “star chain” network of about 12000 satellites in space from 2019 to 2024, and provide high-speed Internet access services from space to the earth. SpaceX plans to launch 720 “star chain” satellites into orbit through 12 rocket launches. After completing this phase, the company hopes to start providing “star chain” services to customers in the north of the United States and Canada in late 2020, with global coverage starting in 2021.
According to Agence France Presse, SpaceX originally planned to launch 57 Mini satellites by its Falcon 9 rocket. In addition, the rocket also planned to carry two satellites from customer blacksky. The launch was delayed before. SpaceX has launched two “star chain” satellites in the past two months.
SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, an American electric vehicle giant, and is headquartered in California. SpaceX has obtained permission from the U.S. authorities to launch 12000 satellites into multiple orbits, and the company has applied for permission to launch 30000 satellites.
SpaceX hopes to gain a competitive edge in the future Internet market from space by building satellite clusters, including oneweb, a British start-up, and Amazon, a US retail giant. But Amazon’s global satellite broadband service project, called Kuiper, is far behind SpaceX’s “star chain” plan.
It is reported that oneweb has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States after Softbank group, the largest investor in oneweb, said it would not provide new funds for it. The British government announced last week that it would co invest $1 billion with Indian telecom giant Bharti to buy oneweb. Oneweb was founded by American entrepreneur Greg Weiler in 2012. It hopes to make the Internet accessible to everyone anywhere with 648 LEO satellites. Currently, 74 satellites have been launched.
The idea of providing Internet services in remote areas is also attractive to the British government, according to a source quoted by Reuters. After the UK withdrew from the EU’s “Galileo” global navigation satellite program, the UK hopes to strengthen its satellite positioning technology with the help of the above acquisition.