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The contents of the Starlink customer kit, which includes the satellite antenna, stand, its power adapter, and a wireless router.
SpaceX
SpaceX plans to build a new factory in Austin, Texas – another area expansion by one of Elon Musk’s companies after the billionaire founder moved there last year.
The plan for the facility was revealed in a job posting for the company seeking an engineer for its Starlink satellite internet division.
“To keep up with global demand, SpaceX is breaking the ground for a new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Austin, TX,” said the company’s announcement.
SpaceX noted that the factory is designed for “high volume production,” specifically to produce “millions of consumer devices.” For its satellite Internet network, these devices are known as the Starlink kit and contain the antenna (or dish) that connects to the satellites, Wi-Fi routers, and antenna mounting hardware
The company’s Starlink entity is currently located in Redmond, Washington – a few miles east of Seattle. The Redmond facility has designed and manufactured Starlink equipment to date, with the company building more than 120 satellites per month.
The company did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request to comment on its plans for the Austin factory.
SpaceX’s plans for the new factory were first announced by Austin-based NBC subsidiary KXAN.
A Starlink user terminal installed on the roof of a building in Canada.
SpaceX
Starlink is the company’s capital-intensive project to build an interconnected Internet network of thousands of satellites, known in the aerospace industry as the Constellation, to deliver high-speed Internet to consumers around the world.
To date, SpaceX has launched more than 1,000 satellites for Starlink. In October, SpaceX began rolling out an early service in public beta for customers in the US, Canada, and the UK at a cost of $ 99 per month plus a $ 499 upfront cost for the hardware needed to connect to required by the network.
The job posting did not provide any further details about the Austin facility, such as square meters, when it was expected to be operational, or its intended production targets. The SpaceX release indicated that the role will include work in Austin and will travel to SpaceX’s Los Angeles headquarters “until the Austin facility is fully established” approximately a quarter of the time.
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