Starlink satellite internet from Elon Musk could be online before 2021

SpaceX stumbled to the first hurdle with its recent attempt to launch 60 satellites into space – which was eventually pushed back one day because of the bad weather, and then was called again. The Elon Musk Starlink project, which aims to rain the Internet from the sky, with 12,000 satellites, was unfortunately a difficult start.

However, while Starlink should take until November 2027 to put its entire army of satellites into orbit, it will not be long before we begin to reap the benefits of the new service. According to Musk, Starlink's first fast and inexpensive fast Internet access service in remote areas (as well as planes, ships and other moving vehicles) could be operational within a year.

"For the system to be economically viable, it actually requires 1,000 satellites," Musk said during a recent phone call with reporters. "Which is obviously a lot of satellites, but it is well below 10,000 or 12,000". Musk plans to launch about 1,000 satellites in the next 12 months, followed by 1,000 more each year. Musk says the service could be available even before 1,000 satellites have been launched. In the United States, an "initial" service would only take 400 satellites, while a "more" service would be possible with 800 satellites.

These figures seem feasible. However, this would still be a significant percentage of all operational satellites in orbit. At present, there are approximately 2,000 operational satellites in orbit around the Earth, in addition to thousands of dead satellites. Given this number and SpaceX's desire to launch at least one Starlink mission per month, it will not be long before the company becomes a majority player in the global game in orbit.

"I think that maybe a year and a half, maybe two years ago, hopefully, SpaceX will probably have more satellites in orbit than all the other satellites combined," Musk said. "Basically, the majority of satellites in orbit will be SpaceX."

Each Starlink satellite should be able to carry approximately 1 terabit of functional bandwidth. As Business Insider points out, this is enough to provide a 4K streaming video to over 1,000 people at the same time.