- SpaceX, aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company founded by Elon Musk, announced it is planning to take Starlink public sometime in the next few years
SpaceX — the aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company founded by Elon Musk — is planning to take its space Internet venture Starlink public sometime in the next several years. This was revealed by SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell at an event hosted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Miami, according to a Bloomberg report by Ashlee Vance and Dana Hull.
“Right now, we are a private company, but Starlink is the right kind of business that we can go ahead and take public,” said Shotwell via Bloomberg. “That particular piece is an element of the business that we are likely to spin out and go public.”
Since May, SpaceX started launching groups of satellites. Now the company has about 240 satellites orbiting the planet. And SpaceX has a goal of offering broadband internet service by the end of 2020. Musk is aiming to eventually set up a network of 30,000 satellites.
The Internet service that will be offered by Starlink is expected to cost lower than what the average consumer pays for around 5-10 times the average speed.
Some of Starlink’s largest rivals include OneWeb Satellites and Amazon’s Project Kuiper. While Project Kuiper is still a few years out, OneWeb launched 34 satellites from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today as part of a plan to put 648 satellites into the orbit and start commercial use later this year. OneWeb has raised $3 billion since the company launched in 2012. OneWeb’s investors include Airbus, Coca-Cola, Intelsat, Virgin, Qualcomm, Softbank, and the Government of the Republic of Rwanda.
SpaceX was originally founded in 2002 and it raised $3.2 billion in funding since then. As of May 2019, SpaceX was valued at more than $33 billion. And Musk indicated that he intends to keep SpaceX private until it starts transporting people to Mars.
