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SpaceX does not plan to add 'tiered pricing' for Starlink satellite internet service, president says
SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell does not think the company will add "tiered pricing" for its direct-to-consumer Starlink satellite internet service, which is currently offered at $99 a month in limited early access.
"I don't think we're going to do tiered pricing to consumers. We're going to try to keep it as simple as possible and transparent as possible, so right now there are no plans to tier for consumers," Shotwell said, speaking at the Satellite 2021 "LEO Digital Forum" on a virtual panel on Tuesday.
[...] In October, SpaceX began rolling out early Starlink service in a public beta that now extends to customers in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany and New Zealand – with service priced at $99 a month in the U.S., in addition to an upfront cost for the equipment needed to connect to the satellites.
[...] Musk's company plans to expand Starlink beyond homes, asking the Federal Communications Commission to widen its connectivity authorization to "moving vehicles," so the service could be used with everything from aircraft to ships to large trucks.
[...] Shotwell said SpaceX has "made great progress on reducing the cost" of the Starlink user terminal, which originally were about $3,000 each. She said the terminals now cost less than $1,500, and SpaceX "just rolled out a new version that saved about $200 off the cost."
See also: SpaceX's Starlink terminal production costs have dropped over 50%, reveals president
Satellite operators weigh strategies to compete against growing Starlink network
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 08 2021, @01:54PM (5 children)
on a side note, i was wondering if it's possible to buy a rocket from SpaceX.
like you can buy a plane from boeing or airbus or whatnot.
or you can buy a ship.
so like, could a country, say uhmm ...errr... fictionalistan buy a Falcon 9 and park it at the spaceX "marina" then go about launching weather-observing satellites (must have for every country), com-satellites and land management sats for their own population? then maybe also offer to send stuff to orbit for smaller countries that don't have enough cash or dough?
i mean, every other country has their own airlines and they don't really build them planes themselfs eh?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday April 08 2021, @04:51PM
Boeing, etc. don't provide routine airliner maintenance, that's up to the airlines to hire the right people and for them to maintain the fleet of planes.
Space companies don't work like that, partly, because it is rocket science. The only thing keeping a rocket from being a giant missile is how it's used. The same could be said for airplanes, but they carry a lot less fuel and make a less spectacular fireball on impact. So, I guess the real issue is cost and expertise. Making the rocket is only part of the equation. A significant part for sure, but it's not quite so user-friendly as an airplane.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday April 08 2021, @05:40PM
Fictionalistan would be barred from getting a rocket (which is basically a missile) by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/a23080/spacex-elon-musk-itar/ [popularmechanics.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Traffic_in_Arms_Regulations [wikipedia.org]
Falcon 9 is probably a bad choice too since it's not fully reusable like Starship will be. Fictionalistan might not be a great place for rocket launches (better to be near the equator, and it needs pad/infrastructure built, possibly costing more than the rocket).
So instead you have SpaceX launching satellites for small countries from the U.S. Turkmenistan's first satellite in April 2015, CubeSats for Bangladesh (BRAC Onnesha), Ghana (GhanaSat-1), and Mongolia (Mazaalai) in June 2017, CubeSats for Costa Rica and Kenya alongside CRS-14 in April 2018, Arabsat-6A for Saudi Arabia/the Arab League in April 2019, etc.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday April 08 2021, @11:50PM (2 children)
Down the road, I wouldn't be surprised to see that sort of operation. But there are two big obstacles. As already noted, rockets make decent weapons, so they are heavily regulated. There are also huge technology theft risks.
Second, you need a lot of investment just to launch one of these things. You need a launch site, you need a highly skilled crew to launch, retrieve, and maintain these vehicles. Who will build that site? Who will train your crew? SpaceX could do that in theory, but they don't have the people right now to do that and to maintain their launch tempo. They also don't have the interest since your launches would compete with SpaceX business.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 09 2021, @03:23AM (1 child)
thanks but not much "observing" required really.
we all heard the hilarious quote of "throw away plane after it flew from NY to LA".
and then, the other day i downloaded the documentary about spaceX and the story to lead up to DEMO-1, mainly because of some hi-def shots of ... u guessed it: ROCKETS!
anyways it pinged in my mind when i saw the eyes of the lady in charge (?) of the refurbishment hanger of F9 ... "well, are you gonna send us 'em rocket refurbishment apprentices already?"
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday April 09 2021, @07:56AM
I still disagree on that. There's a surprising amount of mileage in that observation.
While it is natural to compare orbital launch with the nearest analogous industry, commercial air (both passenger and cargo), it's still easy to miss some ways (that haven't happened yet) that spaceflight can be more like air flight. This is one of those ways. SpaceX is unusual in the extreme vertical nature of the business. They not only build their vehicles almost completely from scratch rather than contract out (which makes them near unique in aerospace, not just orbital launch). But they're also one of their biggest customers with Starlink (and possible future business like Mars colonization).
But there are some things in common. Every orbital launch manufacturer in the world launch their own rockets. Nobody just build rockets for someone else to use. You don't start to see that sort of business until you go to some types of small suborbital rockets (especially when you get to the high side of the hobby business, there's a bunch of people who can make large hobby-scale solid motors and launching such rockets requires relatively light training).
There's no reason SpaceX or a competitor couldn't reduce their market scope to providing launch vehicles and launch/maintenance crew training (with the only launches being tests of the vehicles). That's what Boeing and Airbus (as well as most other airplane manufacturers) do.