{"id":136863,"date":"2022-03-14T18:02:29","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T01:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/03\/spacex-drone-ship-leaves-port-for-sixth-back-to-back-starlink-launch"},"modified":"2022-03-14T18:02:29","modified_gmt":"2022-03-15T01:02:29","slug":"spacex-drone-ship-leaves-port-for-sixth-back-to-back-starlink-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/03\/spacex-drone-ship-leaves-port-for-sixth-back-to-back-starlink-launch","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX drone ship leaves port for sixth back-to-back Starlink launch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/spacex-drone-ship-leaves-port-for-sixth-back-to-back-starlink-launch2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>SpaceX drone ship Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) has departed Port Canaveral in anticipation of the company\u2019s sixth consecutive Starlink launch.<\/p>\n<p>Known as Starlink 4\u201312, the mission will be SpaceX\u2019s sixth uninterrupted Starlink launch \u2013 just shy of the company\u2019s record of seven Starlink launches between commercial payloads. Though SpaceX would probably prefer to avoid month-long streaks without commercial launches, the company\u2019s ability to use its own launch capabilities to deploy its Starlink constellation means that it can maintain valuable economies of scale while simultaneously launching satellites that generate <em>some<\/em> revenue.<\/p>\n<p>With approximately 200,000 active subscribers, Starlink should already be generating around ~$250 million in annual revenue \u2013 perhaps enough to pay for anywhere from five to ten Starlink launches. Viewed another way, $250M would also pay the average annual salaries of more than 2,300 employees. Even if it doesn\u2019t come close to the $1\u20132 billion SpaceX is likely spending annually on Starlink development, deployment, and operations, it\u2019s still better than the alternative that all other launch providers are left with: nothing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SpaceX drone ship Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) has departed Port Canaveral in anticipation of the company\u2019s sixth consecutive Starlink launch. Known as Starlink 4\u201312, the mission will be SpaceX\u2019s sixth uninterrupted Starlink launch \u2013 just shy of the company\u2019s record of seven Starlink launches between commercial payloads. Though SpaceX would probably prefer to avoid [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1488,39,418,2028],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drones","category-economics","category-internet","category-satellites"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}