How Elon Musk’s Starlink Is Bringing In Billions For SpaceX

Starlink is SpaceX’s answer to providing global, high-speed internet coverage using a network of thousands of satellites buzzing around the planet in a region known as low Earth orbit (LEO), about 342 miles above the Earth’s surface. SpaceX launched its first batch of Starlink satellites back in 2019, and since then, adoption of the service has ballooned. Starlink now has over 2 million active customers and is available on all 7 continents and in over 60 countries. Starlink has been praised for its ability to connect remote parts of the world that would otherwise not have access to reliable internet. The service has also become indispensable in areas hit by natural disasters, and, more recently, during times of war, particularly the Russia-Ukraine war. But Starlink’s growing influence is garnering condemnation from some who say that SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk is meddling in geopolitics, while the scientific community is raising alarms of the effect of thousands of satellites on radio and optical astronomy.

Chapters:
00:00 - 03:03 Intro
03:03 - 06:36 Behind Starlink’s growth
06:36 - 10:33 Starlink and geopolitics
10:33 - 15:35 Scientific concerns
15:35 - 18:38 Future

Produced and Edited by: Magdalena Petrova
Animation: Mallory Brangan
Supervising Producer: Jeniece Pettitt
Editorial Support: Michael Sheetz
Additional Footage: Getty Images

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How Elon Musk’s Starlink Is Bringing In Billions For SpaceX

[mephistoss]

as someone who works at a very remote location, starlink is the only way to communicate with the outside world and its pretty sick

[diennguyen]

Took a recent cruise on a ship equipped with starlink in the Gulf of Mexico. Was facetiming friends in the middle on the gulf with no issues. What a difference from 5 years ago.

[espenjensen]

As a seaworker I’m thrilled to have starlink at sea! It’s not only a good business idea, but it helps us seafarers a lot by staying connected with those on land. I think I can speak for many when I say it’s a game changer🤩

[pxdccmm]

I can not say enough great things about my experience with Starlink thus far. Starlink has been a godsend for my family allowing my family members to further themselves academically while enjoying a greater quality of life that Starlink has made possible. Thank you Elon Musk and team.

[bkyuch]

Internet coverage in some rural areas in Germany is so catastrophic that Starlink is my only hope moving forward.

[Byefriendo]

Recently drove across the middle of australia, from Adelaide to Darwin and back, and had a starlink dish on the car. We were getting 10's or 100's of Mbps driving across some of the most remote places in the world. Every roadhouse we passed had a Starlink dish. Its basically the only way we could communicate out there.

[JAISONJOSEJA]

As an offshore worker, I am super thrilled

[TobinOsusky]

So grateful to finally be connected thanks to starlink! 3 years living in Costa Rica without internet and life has changed drastically in the last month

[JohnTaylor-xgjn]

I live in BFE, the fastest internet I could get was 1.5 Mbps until i got Starlink, now I get 100 Mbps - 200 Mbps consistently. It's been a game changers for me.

[timothy]

I have had it for about 6-months now. I’m very happy with the service… allows me to work a remote IT job on 43 acres of affordable wilderness.

[musicman]

Starlink is absolutely brilliant for the very sparse rural populations in NZ and Australia, as the constellation is sized for the much larger northern hemisphere populations. NZ, Australia, the island nations and mid-ocean shipping get city fibre-grade bandwidth and performance.

[kenrehill]

I installed it yesterday and the service is superb. He’s killing the competition. Good lad.

[ktan]

Starlink is one of the smartest moves by SpaceX. It generated huge demand for commercial rockets, which enables SpaceX to drive down cost even further.

[emmastone]

I grew up in a very rural area, and for most of my life no matter how much money we were willing to pay there wasn't a high speed internet that could get to us. My parents now pay for starlink and it has changed the game in rural areas, I can visit home and continue to work remotely, I could barely do my homework there in the past.

[kiandrah]

My point exactly. Every now and then the little guy gets a victory and it gives everybody hope.

[moman]

As a customer of Starlink for a year, it’s let us access High Speed Internet in a regional area in Australia, where our Government has failed us with our National Broadband Network (NBN), where our Fixed Wireless Internet access has given us Speeds of
50 Mbps Down and 8 Mbps Up, verse Starlink Speeds is 230 Mbps Down and 20+ Mbps Up on a Cloudy Day! Thanks Elon and SpaceX! However it’s important that Competition is also present.

[producermogul]

Star link is a complete game changer. I used it on the cruise ships. It’s absolutely amazing.

[AM-turc]

I work at Starlink as an engineer for our satellite communications. Yes, there are some downsides, but I believe internet access is a fundamental human right. Starlink allows access to internet in so many rural areas that ISPs are unwilling to put money into to build infastructure. Hopefully everybody on planet Earth can one day have access to internet, and Starlink can help make that goal a reality.

[akbeal]

People don't realize this is a huge national security advantage for the United States.

[whatnowZA]

Man is out here playing real-life Tony Stark 😂