SpaceX’s low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite internet Starlink has over 600,000 prospective users already, and with SpaceX having shipped 100,000 Starlink terminals as of last month, the company is looking to boost production.
While SpaceX produces up to 5,000 Starlink dishes per week, the company is reportedly looking to up its production of the terminals in order to keep up with demand and a long backlog of orders, according to PCMag.
At the Maryland Satellite 2021 conference on Tuesday, SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen shared that the company would be looking to produce “multiples” of what it’s currently producing in the coming months, including a lower-cost terminal unit set to be unveiled.
The lower-cost Starlink terminal will be cheaper to produce, according to Johnsen, though it won’t immediately result in a price drop for consumers – and whether it will at all in the future is unclear at this point.
SpaceX Paused Starlink Launches to Upgrade Satellites with Lasers https://t.co/78PCcCuWw5
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) August 25, 2021
Currently, Starlink hardware costs users in the U.S. $499 USD for the terminal and other hardware, alongside a monthly subscription cost of $99 per month, covering the service itself.
Last month, SpaceX President and CEO Gwynne Shotwell took the lowered production costs even one step further than Johnsen, saying the company would be able to “cut [the price] in half again” down the road.
At an annual Space Symposium in August, Shotwell said, “The ones we will have later this year will cost roughly half of what our current user terminals cost.” Shotwell continued, “And then we think we’ll be able to cut that in half yet again.”
