SpaceX operations engineer Siva Bharadvaj revealed the details during the launch webcast of its 26th Starlink mission this week, and company founder confirmed this to business TV channel CNBC.
“To date, over half a million people have placed an order or put down a deposit for Starlink,” said Musk,
He said on Twitter: “Only limitation is high density of users in urban areas.” But capacity would be “more of a challenge when we get into the several million user range”. Starlink, like rival OneWeb, is seen as having a significant advantage for rural coverage. OneWeb last night announced a deal to provide coverage for the US Air Force in one of the most rural parts of the wordl, the Arctic.
SpaceX now has more than 1,500 Starlink satellites in orbit — almost 10 times as many as OneWeb, which has 162. Starlink is already recruiting customers, charging US$499 for the receiving kit and $99 a month for service.
Some users have reported good speeds, though official commercial service has not yet started. SpaceX has not announced an official launch date.
According to CNBC, Starlink had “over 10,000 users in the United States and abroad” as of February 2021.
