zakwear

Musk is threatening to take StarLink public, which would be akin to a crypto currency ICO. Of course, the public wouldn't be aware that the shares will never pay dividends, and the preferred distributions go to Elon/SpaceX, and not the shareholders.

Blocking astronomers, and they barely started:

https://img.bfmtv.com/i/0/0/9a6/8df134f9fd0a493fed36fcd3e66e...

There is no guarantee of this. Very possible the satellites can break up and cause junk/collisions. They are too bright and block astronomers already:

https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/imag...

https://www.labroots.com/trending/space/22175/spacex-starlin...

Yeah, it is crazy! Crazy more expensive and wasteful than installing land lines.

People in the developing world are not going to pay a high enough price to float this business. The vast majority of people in rich countries have cheaper and better internet already installed.

StarLink is probably a failed financial model before it is even completed. They aren't the first-mover, either. HughesNet provides better service at a lower price, and they only have to keep 3 satellites operating at outer orbit.

StarLink is trying to reduce ping by flying thousands of satellites at low orbit. The problem? No matter what you do, the ping will be worse, and cost more money, than broadband.

The developing world will never be able to pay for StarLink at a price high enough to replace thousands of satellites every 5 years. SpaceX will depend on users from rich countries to pay exorbitant fees, and users in those countries already have access to cheaper, faster broadband.

So, it may be that StarLink will go the way of SolarCity and need to be bailed out by another Musk company.