{"id":19583,"date":"2015-10-27T23:31:52","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T15:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacexs-gwynne-shotwell-signals-go-slow-approach-for-seattle-satellite-plan\/"},"modified":"2015-10-27T23:31:52","modified_gmt":"2015-10-27T15:31:52","slug":"spacexs-gwynne-shotwell-signals-go-slow-approach-for-seattle-satellite-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacexs-gwynne-shotwell-signals-go-slow-approach-for-seattle-satellite-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX\u2019s Gwynne Shotwell signals go-slow approach for Seattle satellite plan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"SpaceX
During SpaceX\u2019s Seattle announcement about an Internet satellite network, the company\u2019s logo lit up Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center. (GeekWire photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s been nine months since SpaceX\u2019s billionaire founder, Elon Musk, announced plans to put up a constellation of 4,000 satellites to provide global Internet service, and scores of employees are being hired in the Seattle area to start making it so. But today SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell signaled that the company is reconsidering those plans.<\/p>\n

\"Gwynne
Gwynne Shotwell is SpaceX\u2019s president and chief operating officer. (Credit: SpaceX)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI would say that this is actually very speculative at this point,\u201d Space News quoted Shotwell as saying at the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia convention in Hong Kong. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a lot of effort going into that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project is technically doable, she said. \u201cBut can we develop the technology and roll it out with a lower-cost methodology so that we can beat the prices of existing providers like Comcast and Time Warner and other people? It\u2019s not clear that the business case will work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Shotwell\u2019s comments are consistent with the cautious tone that Musk took during a Boston space conference in July. Back then, he emphasized that the satellite project was still just in its early stages. \u201cI think the long-term potential of it is pretty great, but I don\u2019t want to overplay or overstate things,\u201d he said in response to a question about the plan.<\/p>\n

\"pluto\"
\nScience journalist Alan Boyle<\/strong> is the author of “The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made A Big Difference.”<\/p>\n

A week before Musk made those comments, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket broke up, resulting in the failure of a robotic resupply mission to the International Space Station and forcing a months-long suspension of Falcon launches. An investigation traced the breakup to a faulty strut, and SpaceX is planning to return to flight in December \u2013 but the company has had to reshuffle its launch schedule due to the delay.<\/p>\n

The office that SpaceX opened in Redmond this year is expected to play a lead role in developing the satellites for the Internet constellation, and all indications are that the work is continuing.<\/p>\n

In fact, the company is advertising for 45 open positions in the Seattle area, including an internship for the fall of 2016. But based on Shotwell\u2019s comments, it might take longer for the Seattle employment figures to rise to the 1,000 mark that some expected back in January.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve reached out to SpaceX\u2019s representatives, but so far there\u2019s nothing to add to what Shotwell said in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During SpaceX\u2019s Seattle announcement about an Internet satellite network, the company\u2019s logo lit up Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center. (GeekWire photo) It\u2019s been nine months since SpaceX\u2019s billionaire founder, Elon Musk, announced plans to put up a constellation of 4,000 satellites to provide global Internet service, and scores of employees are being hired in the Seattle area to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[20,316],"class_list":["post-19583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-satellite","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19583"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19583\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}