3 Years of Starlink: Elon Musk's Satellite Internet Service Shares Throwback Of Connecting 1st Customers

SpaceX‘s Starlink commemorated its first customers from three years ago on Thursday.

What Happened: “Three years ago today, Starlink connected our first customer with high-speed internet,” the post on Starlink’s official X account reads.

The post was adjoined by a short video of Wendy Layer and Sean Layer— the first Starlink customers— from Sandpoint, Idaho. Starlink is the internet service provided by SpaceX with the help of a satellite constellation in low-Earth orbit. 

“The minute they turned it on we could stream a movie, video chat, play games on the internet without a lot of lag…,” Wendy recounted. Wendy works remotely with the help of satellite internet while also engaging in new recipes and her love for cooking.

“With Starlink, we didn’t have to compromise on where we live due to lack of technology,” Sean said.

Three Years Later: “Starlink has grown rapidly since then, delivering high-speed internet to locations all around the world where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable,” the company added in its post.

The service is now available on all seven continents and in over 60 countries spread across these regions. It also has over 2 million active customers.

Starlink's influence on the war in Ukraine has also been significant, aiding Ukraine's advances, though they have been curtailed by Musk's insistence that it not be used for offensive operations into Russia.

SpaceX, Starlink’s parent which was recently valued at $137 billion, has long been a subject of IPO speculation among space enthusiasts and Elon Musk fans, akin to Tesla’s success. 

While Musk hasn’t set an IPO timeline, SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell in February indicated a potential catalyst. 

In 2022, Starlink achieved a cash-flow positive quarter, and Shotwell predicted a profitable year for Starlink in 2023, hinting at a possible IPO on the horizon.

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