Elon Musk Hails SpaceX's Competitive Edge After Boeing Abandons Satellite Constellation Plans

Aerospace company Boeing Co BA has reportedly dropped its plans to operate a satellite constellation in low Earth orbit, not unlike Starlink, leaving SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to tout his own company’s competitiveness.

What Happened: “Competing with SpaceX is tough,” Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter. He was responding to reports of rival company Boeing halting plans for Starlink competitor constellation.

Boeing had acquired approval to operate a 147-member V-band satellite constellation in a low-Earth orbit similar to SpaceX’s Starlink in November 2021. However, the company has given up its license and paid a $2.2 million forfeiture fee to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Aviation Week reported.

Boeing Space Mission Systems vice president Michelle Parker told Aerospace DAILY that its test mission from September 2022 provided valuable data and learning. "We are confident that V-band will someday be commercialized as global demand for satellite broadband connectivity continues to increase," they said. However, they added that the company would not be immediately pursuing it.

The FCC officially withdrew Boeing’s license on Oct. 12.

Why It Matters: FCC license requires operators to deploy half their constellation within 6 years of receiving the license. Under the previous license, Boeing had to launch half its constellation by November 2027.

Meanwhile, Boeing is also presently struggling with its Starliner spacecraft. NASA awarded Boeing with a $4.2 billion fixed-price contract to develop the Starliner in 2014 as part of its commercial crew program. A similar contract was also awarded to Musk’s SpaceX for about $2.6 billion. While Boeing has pegged Starliner’s first crewed flight for 2024, SpaceX is gearing up for its eighth operational crew rotation to the International Space Station (ISS).

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Image Credit – SpaceX

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