Musk “careful” over 4,000-satellite plan
July 10, 2015
By Chris Forrester
Elon Musk, despite being busy solving problems with his SpaceX Falcon rocket’s failure, is also being ultra-cautious with his plan to build and launch 4,000 satellite system to girdle the Earth.
Despite commercial pressures from the rival announcement from Greg Wyler/Richard Branson-backed scheme, Musk says he is aware that many other not dissimilar super-constellations have failed spectacularly. “We want to be really careful about how we make this thing work, and not overextend ourselves.”
Musk announced his constellation plan back in January, and speedily followed up with news that he was also planning to build a new factory where the constellations would be assembled.
In May, Musk’s team submitted their formal application to the Federal Communications Commission for transmission spectrum, including ‘experimental’ Ka-band bandwidth, for a trial to take place next year.
“We’re still in the early stages of a big LEO constellation communications idea,” he said. “I think the long-term potential of it is pretty great, but I don’t want to overplay or overstate things.”