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70% of the over 1,000 satellites launched in a single year came from Starlink.
SpaceX’s RDOF Phase 1 award will fund Starlink broadband service to nearly 643,000 homes and businesses in 35 states.
The Falcon 9 first stage used on the launch previously flew on the Demo-2 commercial crew mission in May 2020 and on launches of the ANASIS-2 satellite and a set of Starlink satellites.
The annual revenue of $30 billion predicted for Starlink would be a tenfold increase from existing revenue channels.
Elon Musk estimated that Starlink could generate $30 billion in annual revenue, significantly more than the highest expected revenue from SpaceX's core rocket business.
SpaceX has launched 955 Starlink satellites in total, with 895 of them currently in orbit.
The Falcon 9 booster completed a final Iridium mission in 2019-01-01 and then launched four Starlink missions from 2019-05-01 to 2020-08-18.
On 2020-11-17, SpaceX requested permission from the Federal Communications Commission to begin launching Starlink satellites into sun-synchronous orbit.
SpaceX agreed to limit Starlink satellite altitudes so they would not fly higher than 580 km, tightening orbital tolerances around a 570-kilometer baseline to avoid Project Kuiper satellites at 590 km.
The Falcon 9 first stage that landed first flew in 2018-09-01 launching the Telstar 18 Vantage satellite, flew the final Iridium mission in 2019-01-01, and launched four Starlink missions beginning in 2019-05-01, most recently on 2020-08-18.
Viasat filed an objection with the FCC on 2020-11-19 raising concerns about premature failures of Starlink satellites and arguing that the December launch opportunity was not necessarily the only one.
To date SpaceX has launched Starlink satellites into orbits at a 53-degree inclination, which exclude higher latitudes including Alaska, northern Canada, and northern Europe.
Early Starlink customers pay $499 for the required hardware and $99 per month for a service plan promising 50–150 Mbps of low-latency broadband.
Hughes Network Systems’ estimate places the cost of a Starlink antenna to SpaceX between $1,000 and $1,500 per unit.
A reseller model for wireless ISPs and cellular companies is expected to emerge as a Starlink business model iteration to serve areas where the $499 upfront cost and $99 monthly fee are unaffordable for typical households.
Analyst Tim Farrar of TMF Associates estimates the $499 Starlink terminal is costing SpaceX closer to $1,500 to $2,000 to produce.
Starlink plans to expand overseas coverage in markets with minimal broadband and higher consumer purchasing power, with parts of Australia, Germany, and Japan identified as initial opportunities.
A set of 60 Starlink satellites deployed from the upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket during a launch on 2020-10-24.
SpaceX received regulatory approval from Industry, Science and Economic Development Canada on 2020-11-06 to operate the Starlink system in Canada.
SpaceX started a Starlink beta test for customers in the northern United States with participants paying US$499 for the antenna and router and US$99 per month for service.