Elon Musk Says Starlink Has Breached 'Strategically Important Threshold' Of 69,420 Simultaneously Active Users

SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced on Saturday that its high-speed, satellite-based internet service Starlink has breached the "strategically important threshold" of 69,420 simultaneous active users.

What Happened: The numbers "69" and "420," referring to a sexual position and cannabis culture respectively, are often mentioned by Musk in different contexts, and it's likely that Musk is referring to this event as "strategically important" in the spirit of memes. Nevertheless, this wasn't the only update shared by the SpaceX CEO.
In a series of tweets, Musk revealed all of 72 orbital planes will activate in August and enable global coverage except in the polar region where coverage will be deployed in another six months.

Musk also revealed Starlink is focusing on internet service rollout certifications for the Boeing Co’s BA 737 and Airbus SE’s EADSY A320 jets, as those serve the largest number of people. Starlink is also conducting development testing on General Dynamics Corp GD-owned Gulfstream aircraft, he revealed. 

See Also: Elon Musk Says Will Do His 'Best' To Give Long-Term Tesla Shareholders Preference In Starlink IPO

Starlink, which is currently in the beta phase, is a SpaceX venture designed to beam down the internet, especially in remote areas from satellites in orbit to Earth. 

Why It Matters: A February filing revealed Starlink had secured over 10,000 customers since launching the public beta testing late last year. 

The Musk-led company has launched over 1,000 satellites and hopes to have 4,425 in orbit by 2024. The Federal Communications Commission has approved 11,943 satellites to be launched by Starlink.

In May this year, the company claimed it had secured more than 500,000 orders for Starlink.

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