SpaceX No Longer Taking Losses To Produce Starlink Satellite Antennas

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is no longer absorbing the cost of the Starlink antennas it sells with its satellite internet service, a company executive said Wednesday, a key step to the company improving its profitability. CNBC reports: “We were subsidizing terminals, but we’ve been iterating on our terminal production so much that we’re no longer subsidizing terminals, which is a good place to be,” Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX vice president of Starlink and commercial sales, said during a panel at the World Satellite Business Week conference.

SpaceX sells consumer Starlink antennas, also known as user terminals, for $599 each. For more demanding Starlink customers — such as mobile, maritime or aviation users — SpaceX sells antennas with its service in a range between $2,500 and $150,000 each. When SpaceX first began selling its Starlink service, company leadership said the terminals cost about $3,000 each to manufacture. The company improved that to about $1,300 per terminal by early 2021. Hofeller’s comments Wednesday indicate the terminals now cost less than $600 each to make, mass production savings that Hofeller credited as “one of our keys to success.”