Musk’s Starlink on a hiring spree
June 24, 2019
By Chris Forrester
Elon Musk’s plan to girdle the planet with an eventual mega-constellation of almost 12,000 satellites is moving ahead with increased speed.
New data from tech journalist Joshua Fruhlinger and the statistics site Thinknum indicated that the number of job listings which mention ‘Starlink’ has increased rapidly over the past six months and in particular since mid-April. Job listings have increased from a typical three-to-five per week to nearer 20-25 per day. According to Thinknum, there have been 571 individual job postings since September last year.
As Fruhlinger reminds readers, Musk’s current plan calls for 44 ‘Starlink’ satellites to be launched every month for the next five years. The first batch of 60 were launched on May 23rd.
Musk is promising a global internet service by 2021 although a limited service for the US could start as soon as 2020 once 400 satellites are orbiting. However, with his 44 per month plan, it will take until 2027 to serve the planet.