SpaceX News: Space Cargo Shipping Company Developing Satellite Internet for Places Lacking Web Service
SpaceX, the technology, space exploration and outer-space cargo shipping company, is going into a new venture: providing Internet services.
SpaceX has already garnered a name for itself by delivering space cargo to and from the International Space Station (ISS) for The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It has also secured a partnership deal with Boeing for a space taxi to deliver astronauts to and from the ISS.
The company's next step will reportedly be giving Internet via satellites to places that do not have it, Wall Street Journal reports.
Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO, released the planned satellite news via his Twitter account this week. While SpaceX's big Internet plans is an attention-getter, it also puts their organization in a group of other technological firms that are doing the same thing: supplying the Internet to places that lack access to the information superhighway.
SpaceX intends to launch at least 700 satellites weighing under 250 pounds each, but Musk said the company is only in early stages.
"SpaceX is still in the early stages of developing advanced micro-satellites operating in large formations. Announcement in 2 to 3 months," he wrote in the Twitter announcement.
Musk will be working with fellow entrepreneur Greg Wyler, founder of WorldVu Satellites Ltd., who has also had satellite Internet experience and expertise from working at Google.
Wyler said WorldVu hopes to deliver high-speed Internet service via a large constellation of small satellites. The idea behind SpaceX and WorldVu's venture is to bring wireless and fast Internet to places that do not have the infrastructure to support or even build fiber networks.
Wyler also founded O3b Networks, another high-speed Internet satellite service (he has since left the company but is still a shareholder), Forbes reported. O3b Networks already has eight satellites providing similar high speed Internet service, and this company has four other satellites ready to launch. Although Wyler has since left O3b Networks, he is still a shareholder.
WorldVu and SpaceX's business partnership has an venture estimated cost of around $1 billion.
While other tech companies have difficult challenges with their global Internet support, SpaceX's venture will be on a larger scale making their Internet pursuits even more difficult. It is expected to be at least 10 times bigger, this would be the largest existing network of any communication satellites, Newsfactor reported.
The only other low Earth orbiting communication satellite company is the Virginia-based Iridium Communications. They have a 66-satellite fleet currently operating.
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