Internet
SpaceX’s Starlink is hoping to soon power in-flight WiFi
This news comes at the same time Elon Musk sent out an email warning of bankruptcy.
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UPDATE 10/20/2022 9:15 AM ET: SpaceX, the aerospace company owned by Elon Musk, will soon be offering its satellite internet service on airplanes, with the official launch of Starlink Aviation next year.
UPDATE 4/27/2022 4:30 PM ET: Regional carrier JSX announced it will be the first-ever airline to use Starlink satellites for inflight WiFi. Additionally, Hawaiian Airlines revealed it has also chosen Starlink to provide its internet service. The original story follows below.
Your next in-flight internet offering might come from Elon Musk’s SpaceX. That’s according to Jonathan Hofeller, vice president of commercial sales for the company. The news comes from a panel at the Airline Passenger Experience Association earlier this week.
Bloomberg reports that the company is producing six satellites per week at present, but that SpaceX is moving to a more “sophisticated version.” There are currently no timelines available for when that version would be launched.
SpaceX is definitely going wide in the internet category, with Starlink slowly ramping up to provide satellite internet to portions of the planet. The service already has over half a million preorders and recently set its sights on Great Britain.
The company has also recently released a new, smaller user dish to connect to those Starlink satellites.
READ MORE: Starlink can now beam high-speed internet to boats
READ MORE: Starlink can now provide internet to cars, boats, and planes
To go alongside this news, Elon Musk sent out an email to employees over Thanksgiving weekend letting them know that they might need to work that same weekend due to issues with the company’s Raptor engine.
The Raptor engine is set to power the next Starship launch vehicle. In the email, Musk noted that the company faced a “genuine risk of bankruptcy” if the company couldn’t meet the goal of launching a flight every two weeks in 2022.
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