SpaceX, the aerospace manufacturer led by Elon Musk, is reportedly raising $500 million at a $30.5 billion according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. And SpaceX will be using the funding for its satellite Internet project known as Starlink.
Starlink is expected to feature a constellation of 4,425 broadband satellites initially. And then SpaceX would follow that up with 7,518 more satellites. The launch of Starlink is expected to start next year and then the system will become operational after at least 800 satellites are deployed. The Federal Communications Commission granted SpaceX approval for the launch of 7,518 satellites last month.
SpaceX is not the only company that is aggressively developing a constellation of micro-satellites. Arlington, Virginia-based OneWeb is expected to deploy 600 satellites in the next few months. Since being founded in 2012, OneWeb has raised about $1.7 billion from investors such as Softbank, Airbus, Virgin Group, Coca-Cola, and Intelsat.
Back in February, Musk wrote a tweet featuring the first two Starlink demo satellites known as Tintin A & B. These demo satellites were able to communicate to Earth stations:
First two Starlink demo satellites, called Tintin A & B, deployed and communicating to Earth stations pic.twitter.com/TfI53wHEtz
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2018
The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) beacons would be able to beam signals back to Earth between 210 and 750 miles via Ka and Ku frequency bands. If this system is successful, then Internet service providers would be able to beam signals into homes wirelessly rather than having to depend on expensive fiber-optic lines.
This funding round is expected to come from existing shareholders and new investor Baillie Gifford — which is a Scotland-based investment management company. And Starlink could potentially lead SpaceX’s valuation to soar past $50 billion, according to Morgan Stanley estimates. This is because the satellite business has better margins than SpaceX’s rocket business.
