Billionaire Elon Musk, who made his fortune co-founding PayPal, and backs the Tesla electric car as well as the SpaceX rocket launch system, is now helping finance a plan to launch 700 small satellites into orbit.

The plan comes from Greg Wyler, one of the initial backers of the O3b (the ‘other 3 billion’) satellite constellation that’s now orbiting in Mid-Earth orbit.

Wyler was initially reported in June to have been working with Google on his ‘WorldVu’ scheme, which was quoted at the time as likely to cost $3 billion to build and launch. The constellation is planned to circle the Earth with relatively low-cost satellite which would provide a global broadband service.

The Wall Street Journal says that Musk is contemplating building a factory which would mass-produce the satellites, with WorldVu seeking a satellite-building partner to supply expertise for the concept. The WSJ says that Wyler left Google in part because of its lack of expertese

Other posts by Chris Forrester:

1. Musk grabs the booster
2. Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket “has a chance”
3. Differing opinions on Project Kuiper
4. IRIS2 contract signing at year-end
5. Icasa “over-reached” in confiscating StarSat kit
6. Starlink tests D2C in Romania, US, Japan
7. European telcos unite against Starlink D2C
8. Rivada insists “deadlines will be met”
9. Ergen will gain “greatest opportunity” by losing DISH

Categories: Blogs, DTH/Satellite, Inside Satellite