zlacker

Starlink's big investor and launch customer was US Air Force.DoD had long complained about lack of fast sat comms, it's also why they effectively own Iridium.

So in addition to households add foreign bases and possibly drone command networks to possible sources of traffic going fast enough to warrant sat-to-sat connection.

>>p_l+(OP)
Launch customer yes. Investor no. That's Google and Fidelity Paying above the regular rate. Definitely

>>inemes+Y4
USAF fronted significant (40%? Those kinds of numbers were floating around) of initial operational capability costs.

>>p_l+Ab
I'd like to see an article or even an estimate. SpaceX spent 2.4 billion upfront on the dishes alone to ST Micro.

I don't believe the AF spent anything more than 100m for whatever R&D program. And the money was post development.

Was it a black budget thing?