Seven years ago, the United States-based rocket company SpaceX launched 60 satellites into orbit with a Falcon 9 rocket, signaling the start of a fierce battle for space-based internet supremacy and providing hope that the world’s underserved markets would enter the digital age.
The launch marked a major leap forward for worldwide internet access and led to a new moniker — the megaconstellation — for what would become the most ubiquitous objects in space.
At the time of the May 2019 launch, fear of the unknown still weighed on project backers. Even SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk sounded a note of caution beforehand. “There is a lot of new technology here,” he said, according to a report in The New York Times newspaper. “It’s possible that some of these satellites may not work. In fact, it’s possible, a small possibility, that all of the satellites may not work.”
His company’s ambitious plan was to build an interconnected satellite network, or constellation, that could deliver high-speed internet anywhere on Earth. The fully realized megaconstellation would consist of about 12,000 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). Worldwide internet coverage wasn’t the only goal, however. It was viewed as a profit source to bankroll even more fantastic pursuits.
“We see this as a way for SpaceX to generate revenue that can be used to develop more and more advanced rockets and spaceships,” Musk said, according to a May 2019 report by business news network CNBC. “We believe we can use the revenue from Starlink to fund Starship.”
By the end of 2025, more than 9,000 Starlink satellites were on orbit. SpaceX had launched Falcon rockets more than 600 times by early 2026. Although the rockets are some of the most powerful in the world, Musk’s bigger goal is to send humans to Mars, which would require larger and more powerful rockets. That desire led to the development of Starship, which has been performing test flights launched from Starbase in South Texas.
But the 2019 launch of Starlink’s first 60 satellites was a seminal moment. The day after the launch, Musk reported that all 60 satellites were online. Weighing about 227 kilograms, each satellite has a single solar panel and krypton-powered thruster for raising and maintaining altitude. The satellites also have the technology to dodge sizable pieces of debris.
They move steadily outward from a spinning core during deployment. “It will almost seem like spreading a deck of cards on a table,” Musk said, according to The New York Times.
Competitors recognized the potential and quickly joined the megaconstellation market.
By every measure, SpaceX’s Starlink remains the dominant force in the LEO broadband market, accounting for more than 65% of all active satellites, the New Space Economy website reported. With approval for 12,000 satellites and long-term plans for over 34,000, Starlink represents an investment of at least $10 billion.
Starlink holds a strategic edge because SpaceX is the world’s leading launch provider. It now offers high-speed, low-latency internet to consumers, businesses and governments in over 130 countries.
But deep-pocketed competitors quickly emerged. Amazon’s Project Kuiper is a long-term initiative to serve a wide range of customers, “including individual households, schools, hospitals, businesses, and government agencies operating in places without reliable connectivity,” the company’s website said.
Amazon has invested $10 billion in the project and has designed a constellation of 3,236 satellites to operate in LEO. The name Project Kuiper was inspired by a ring of asteroids in the outer solar system called the Kuiper Belt. But the name eventually was replaced with Amazon Leo. Leo is a reference to low Earth orbit.
Another player is OneWeb from France-based Eutelsat, which focuses exclusively on business and government markets rather than selling directly to consumers. It operates an initial constellation of just over 630 satellites, which are arranged in 12 near-polar orbital planes. This design provides coverage of Earth’s polar regions and serves aviation and maritime customers in the Arctic.
Another competitor is Telesat, a Canadian company with a 55-year history as one of the world’s largest traditional satellite operators. Telesat’s Lightspeed network is backed by significant funding, including a substantial loan from the Canadian government.
The Lightspeed initial constellation is planned to consist of 198 satellites operating in LEO. The Lightspeed satellites will be equipped with technology that can process and route data traffic on orbit. Lightspeed’s target customers are in the aeronautical, maritime, government and telecommunications sectors.
The rise of the megaconstellation didn’t escape the notice of other global powers. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is rapidly addressing the challenge. Its most prominent project is Guowang, or National Network, which is a state-backed initiative designed to rival Starlink.
The planned constellation is massive, with filings for nearly 13,000 satellites. Deployment is ongoing, with the CCP demonstrating a brisk launch pace throughout 2025. Another major Chinese project is Qianfan, which is being developed with backing from the Shanghai government. This constellation plan calls for about 15,000 satellites.
But the CCP has even grander plans. It has filed to reserve orbital slots and radio spectrum for constellations of more than 200,000 satellites, although experts have voiced skepticism about the ability of Chinese firms to manufacture and operate these megaconstellations within the seven-year deployment window required by the International Telecommunications Union.
As the U.S. and CCP continue to expand their dominance in the arena, the European Union has launched its own sovereign constellation. The IRIS2, which stands for Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite, will consist of 264 LEO satellites and 18 satellites in medium Earth orbit. The primary objective is to provide secure communications for European governments, military forces and crisis management operations.
This all started with a dream to increase internet access and to one day put humans on Mars. The rise of the megaconstellation bridged the digital divide in unconnected parts of the world and created a new platform for monitoring the planet for a variety of commercial, geopolitical and military customers.
To SpaceX’s chief executive, it was a good investment but only a prelude to things to come. He was quoted on his long-term vision in the 2019 New York Times article. “We think this is a key steppingstone on the way to establishing a self-sustaining city on Mars and a base on the moon.”