SpaceX’s vision for Starlink is unsurprisingly ambitious for the company that pioneered reusable space launch vehicles: build a constellation of small satellites in low-earth orbit that can deliver high-speed communications and data networks to every part of the planet at all times. Since the dawn of the space age six decades ago, humankind has launched a total of roughly eight hundred satellites into low-earth orbit. Over the coming years, SpaceX plans to launch as many as twelve thousand and has sought government approval to launch thirty thousand more.
