3 ms·
I don't think that's the case at all. Consumer should be by far the biggest market. They've focused a lot on reducing the price of the antenna, manufacturing in
by modeless 6y ago
I don't think that's the case at all. Consumer should be by far the biggest market. They've focused a lot on reducing the price of the antenna, manufacturing in volume, and making setup super simple. None of that is very relevant for commercial or military use.
- drawfloat 6y agoIt seems fairly short sighted after the last decade to not assume there is also a military, state, or data collection side to a tech startup's business case. There are definitely applications for this in all those sectors, the onus should be on Starlink to confirm that they don't or assume they are – particularly in light of Elon's recent announcement about SpaceX weapon drops.
- modeless 6y agoThere are undoubtedly military applications and it's not a secret conspiracy or anything. The US military has already tested Starlink and it's been publicly announced. SpaceX is already a military contractor in other areas, of course. But the consumer market is bigger. It's not an afterthought; it's the main event. And AFAIK SpaceX's funding for Starlink is a combination of their own revenue from launch services, and private VC. So it's not correct to say that the military is "bankrolling" Starlink, except to the extent that they buy unrelated launch services from SpaceX.