Phil PlaitElon Musk has already started plans to launch a million satellites.
Yes. A MILLION.
This is a colossally bad idea, and it's not too late to make your voice heard. I explain everything:
AvacadoAvenger@badastro I love my starlink and its a badly needed technology but there needs to be some limitations on constellation sizes and orbital paths.
Dr. Juande Santander-Vela@AvacadoAvenger @badastro it’s not a badly needed technology. What it is insane is that as a society we’ve made it cheaper to launch satellites to provide coverage rather than build 5G cellular capacity and/or fiber broadband…
@juandesant @badastro In my opinion, putting the bandwidth into orbit allows us to have access with minimal ground disruption. Instead of fighting to get the last mile of fiber or copper cable to each individual address in America, Elon is building a scalable orbital network that will make any new build construction or any existing structure access to a viable hight speed signal in nearly any practical location. Build your 5 g where it makes sense. Use Starlink to close any gaps
@AvacadoAvenger @badastro I’m trying to work out the numbers.
SpaceX have deployed in the order of 11700 Starlink sats (including those deorbited) [1]. Assuming 40 sats per launch, to be conservative [2], you need ~293 launches. Lets round that up to 300.
Assuming an internal cost to SpaceX of 15 MUSD [3], that means Starlink cost, only in launches, and not taking into account the ground control segment, the materials and development of the satellites, and other operational costs, over 4500 MUSD have been spent, to serve ~3 thousand million people… but probably only the 1-10% can really afford it. That’s between 15 and 150 dollars expenditure per target consumer, just 1.5 USD if you assume 3 billion people are reachable.
5G is much cheaper to deploy (~2.5 MUSD), but it serve less people, and running some scenarios give estimates of 15 kUSD per reachable person…
Surprising to see it coming much more expensive per person.
[1] https://keeptrack.space/x-report/spacex-brief-2026-04-06
[2] https://starwalk.space/en/news/spacex-starlink-satellites-night-sky-visibility-guide
[3] https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2026/02/spacex-falcon-9-true-cost-to-launch-is-about-300-per-pound-which-is-25-of-selling-price-to-customers.html
@juandesant @badastro Thanks for putting in the effort to support your argument. Last mile costs can be prohibitively expensive in rural connection areas. Placing the satellites in orbit all the time is an ongoing cost basis,with the continual deorbits and launch cycles. To my mind its giving a great capability to the maximum population in a timely manner. This may become unneeded at some point, but for now its a workable solution albeit at a cost in environmental matters.