Starlink Will Benefit From Investment In SpaceX

Legendary Ventures has made An investment in Space Exploration Technologies Corp. ("SpaceX") through its Series N funding round. Founded by Elon Musk, SpaceX is an aviation and aerospace company that designs, manufactures, and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft, including the Starlink satellite constellation.

With this investment, Legendary Ventures continues to execute its strategy of investing in consumer, retail and technology companies, including businesses with enterprise values ranging between $1 billion and $100 billion (USD). "We are honored to be a part of the SpaceX effort to usher in a new era of space exploration, telecommunications, and travel," says Jayson Kim, General Partner of Legendary Ventures.

Legendary Ventures is a venture capital firm that accelerates value creation for early-stage startups in the consumer, retail and technology industries.

SpaceX has launched a total of 713 satellites in its Starlink constellation, the most recent on September 3. The company plans to begin public beta testing of the space-based internet service later this year, but is currently only working with employees to test the system. Kate Tice, senior certification engineer at SpaceX, said the internal testing is showing download speeds of up to 100 Mb/s during the launch webcast.

When fully deployed, the Starlink constellation could number as many as 42,000 satellites, according to the company. At the end of their service life, the satellites will utilize their on-board propulsion system to deorbit over the course of a few months. In the unlikely event the propulsion system becomes inoperable, the satellites will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere within 1-5 years, significantly less than the hundreds or thousands of years required at higher altitudes.

Ten of the 16 SpaceX launches this year have supported the Starlink program. Starlink is targeting service in the Northern U.S. and Canada in 2020, rapidly expanding to near global coverage of the populated world by 2021.

(Source: Legendary Ventures news release and SpaceX information. Courtesy image)