Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, is reportedly planning to launch 700 satellites weighing below 250lbs into space. The satellites will beam the internet to remote corners of the world.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) cited sources familiar with the matter as saying that Musk has collaborated with ex-Google executive Greg Wyler.
Both are currently negotiating with Florida and Colorado officials for the construction of a satellite manufacturing facility and are in search of a partner with skills in the satellite industry, the agency noted.
If the proposed $1bn project kicks off, the satellite constellation will be the largest-of-its-kind, with each satellite being half the size of the already existing smallest communications satellite and costing below $1m.
Wyler’s WorldVu Satellites holds the rights to supervise the radio spectrum that could be used by satellites to beam Internet.
The new satellites would be fired aboard SpaceX rockets, the sources added.
With a dozen of its Falcon 9 rockets already being launched, SpaceX intends to execute more than four dozen missions by the end of 2018.
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Other tech majors including Google and Facebook are also developing technologies to deliver internet services to unreachable areas of the world through satellites, drones and high-altitude balloons.
