SpaceX has begun selling satellite lasers used for fast space communication to third-party firms to boost its own revenue, states SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell.
SpaceX's thousands of Starlink satellites in low-Earth orbit use inter-satellite laser links to pass data between one another in space at the speed of light, allowing the network to offer broader internet coverage around the world with fewer ground stations.
"We'll roll that out ... with our new Polaris Dawn mission coming up here this summer on a Dragon capsule," said Shotwell, referring to the upcoming flight of a private astronaut on the company's Dragon spacecraft.
It is noted that SpaceX has decided to sell spacecraft components to diversify income and raise funds for funding larger capital-intensive projects. SpaceX is developing and testing its next-generation Starship rocket, which will be cheaper but much more powerful than the current Falcon 9.
"We generally don't sell components, so this is a little bit of a new thing for us," Shotwell added.
Starlink for Russians on the front line
Recently, there has been information in the media that Russian soldiers in Ukraine are using Starlink terminals. Later, this information was confirmed by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
In response to this information, SpaceX owner Elon Musk emphasized that no one officially sold terminals to Russia. At the same time, Russian occupiers are experiencing communication problems, even though they managed to obtain Starlink satellite internet terminals.
Soon after, the Ministry of Digital Transformation announced that they had found a way to disconnect Starlink for the Russians and offered it to SpaceX.
