How Google, SpaceX Could Create Space-Based Internet Service

Published at 11:51 am, January 20, 2015

EastIdahoNews.com Staff

iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — The great Internet space race is shaping up to be a wild ride.

Google and SpaceX both share the same vision to create an Internet service that can connect people in all corners of the world and now both companies are reportedly considering working together to connect the world with satellites as the middlemen.

Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, said he wants to launch a constellation of satellites to create a global Internet service that could connect people who don’t have access and would handle long-distance traffic.

“It’s like rebuilding the Internet in space,” Musk told an audience in Seattle last week, where his company is opening a satellite production plant.

The possible billion-dollar partnership was first reported by technology website “The Information,” which cited someone familiar with negotiations between the two companies.

Partnering with Musk’s SpaceX to create a constellation in low-Earth orbit seems like a fit for Google, which has long had its sights on global connectivity. Through its Project Loon, the company has been testing large Internet-equipped balloons that float through the stratosphere.

Google took its interest a step further in April of last year when the company acquired drone company Titan Aerospace. Acknowledging it was “still early days,” Google said in a statement that “atmospheric satellites could help bring internet access to millions of people, and help solve other problems.”

Musk’s plan differs from Project Loon and other attempts by creating smaller satellites that can be launched into low-Earth orbit. While it wouldn’t necessarily — or immediately — replace all hard-wired communications, Musk explained why his plan was ideal for long-distance communications.

Communicating across long distances is faster if the information is routed through a vacuum instead of a fiber, allowing “inherently better…long distance traffic through space,” he said.

While neither company has commented on the reports they will team up, Musk said he plans to use eventual revenue from the project to help fund his dream of colonizing Mars.

Musk’s announcement came the same week Virgin Galactic and Qualcomm teamed up with satellite company OneWeb to announce plans for a similar satellite system to foster high speed worldwide connectivity.

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