SpaceX Booking Over $300 Million/Year

More than a quarter of a million people could be currently getting their internet from space, according to Elon Musk. There are currently more than 250,000 Starlink user terminals in operation, he hinted.

But he did not specifically say they were in operation.

If 250,000 people are currently using Starlink terminals, that would be a revenue run rate of $25 million a month for SpaceX, given the $100/month charge for high-speed internet on the Starlink service. That translates to $300 million a year, and it’s on the low side because Musk said “over” 250,000 terminals.

Mostly likely, Musk means that they are in use, but it’s possible he’s only referring to the number built to date.

SpaceX currently has close to 2,000 Starlink satellites in orbit after losing 40 last week. The hard costs of a Starlink launch are in the neighborhood of $15 million, meaning that launch cost alone per satellite is about $300,000, assuming 50 satellites per launch. That puts the hard cost of launching the existing Starlink constellation at $600 million, meaning that SpaceX will recoup that cost in two years at its current customer level.

Of course, there are many other costs, including ground stations, research and development, satellite loss, and so on, and not all of the $100/month is profit to be applied against satellite costs.

However, clearly there’s a real business here, and additional customers will continue to amortize the company’s costs faster over time.

Plus, SpaceX recently announced a faster, higher-bandwidth service, Starlink Premium, for businesses in remote areas that will bring in even more revenue. Deliveries of that service will begin in Q2 of this year, the company says, and the service will reportedly cost $500/month.

The 40 satellites SpaceX lost last week were victims of a geomagnetic storm that caught them right after launch in a low orbit. Higher orbits offer protection, since the biggest danger was the expansion of the Earth’s outer atmosphere as it warms in solar storms, causing drag that slows the Starlink satellites and leads to de-orbiting.