Elon Musk is sitting on another gold mine if a valuation from Morgan Stanley is anywhere near accurate. The bank – in a best-case valuation – says that Musk’s SpaceX rocket business and its Starlink satellite subsidiary is worth $100 billion. This is undoubtedly good news for Musk, not only in the core valuation but […]
Despite a few technical and weather-related delays SpaceX successfully launched another 60 of its Starlink high-speed broadband-by-satellite craft into orbit on October 24th from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral (at 15.31 UTC). This extra batch of 60 satellites was the 15th launch for the Starlink fleet, and takes the overall fleet size to well […]
SpaceX and Microsoft have confirmed a partnership that will see Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing system link with SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service. “The collaboration that we’re announcing today will allow us to work together to deliver new offerings for both the public and the private sector to deliver connectivity through Starlink for use on Azure,” […]
Canada’s Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved an application by SpaceX for a high-speed satellite-based service to and from Canada. SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, applied for a Basic International Telecommunications Services (BITS) licence in May. The approval for the application was granted a week ago according to a letter to the company posted on […]
Building on the success of its 14th launch on October 18th, SpaceX is readying its 15th batch of Starlink craft for a possible launch on October 21st. Currently a launch of the next batch of 60 satellites is scheduled for 12.36pm Florida time dependent on the usual weather and any last-minute technical delays. Subject to […]
SpaceX launched another 60 of its Starlink broadband-by-satellite craft into orbit at 8.25am Florida time on October 18th. This was the 14th batch of Starlink launches and takes the delivered total of Low Earth orbiting satellites to 835 (although some have been deorbited). The 60 satellites on board were deployed into a near-circular orbit some […]
HBO has commissioned a 6-part drama series about SpaceX and its founder, Elon Musk. The episodic drama is based on a book Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance. The series, according to trade magazine Variety, will document how Musk handpicked a group of like-minded engineers to work […]
Facebook is now operating its own satellite. The single craft was launched back on September 2nd on an Arianespace Vega rocket which carried 53 small satellites. The Facebook “experimental” vehicle weighed just 138 kgs and was built by Maxar technologies. Facebook is not saying much about the mission other than that the satellite has “broadband […]
Russia is to invest $800 million on a new rocket system to compete directly with SpaceX and its reusable Falcon 9 launchers according to Russian news agency TASS. The Russian rocket system, called Amur, was signed with a contract between Russia’s Space Agency Roscosmos and the Progress Space Rocket Center on the conceptual design of […]
Elon Musk, in a tweet after the latest Starlink launch, said that once this batch of 60 satellites are in their correct orbital positions then a test broadband service will start. “We will be able to roll out a fairly wide public beta [service] in northern US & hopefully southern Canada,” Musk said. “Other countries […]