San Francisco: SpaceX has manufactured more than 1 million Starlink terminals in the past few months since pre-orders for the satellite internet system were made available, Elon Musk has announced. On the microblogging site Twitter, the Tesla CEO posted: "Starlink now has over 1M user terminals manufactured".
In April, SpaceX, in partnership with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), had delivered 5,000 Starlink terminals to war-torn Ukraine recently. The satellite internet connectivity of Ukraine was taken offline permanently by a cyberattack on the day of the Russian invasion on February 24. The terminals also allow public officials and critical citizen service providers to continue to communicate within Ukraine and with the rest of the world.
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According to an earlier USAID release, SpaceX has delivered 3,667 satellites at the cost of "roughly $10 million," with USAID purchasing the remaining 1,333 terminals. Meanwhile, Musk recently said Starlink, the satellite Internet division of his rocket company, is now active on all the continents, including Antarctica. McMurdo Station in Antarctica has nearly 1,000 people living and working there during the summer and they already have satellite internet, which is not reliable in rough conditions. (IANS)
