SpaceX expects to start launching its larger, more powerful Starlink satellites in mid-2027, the tentative start of a long-planned upgrade to the internet-from-space system that will rely on the company’s massive new Starship rocket.
Speaking on Monday at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and Starlink vice president Mike Nicolls discussed the future of the Starlink system.
"With Starship we’ll be able to deploy the constellation very quickly,” Nicolls said. "Our goal is to deploy a constellation capable of providing global and contiguous coverage within six months, and that’s roughly 1,200 satellites.”
Starlink is the largest single satellite network in the world, with nearly 10,000 satellites currently in orbit around Earth, and is expected to bring in US$9bil (RM35.5bil) of revenue for SpaceX in 2026, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
At the moment, all of the satellites are launched on SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket. The company eventually hopes to launch a larger fleet of more capable satellites on its Starship rocket that’s in development to take large amounts of cargo and people into space.
Nicolls said that, when Starship is up and running, it will be able to launch 50 larger Starlink satellites at a time. Once the initial system of larger Starlink satellites is created, SpaceX plans to keep scaling in order to reach "truly global coverage, including the polar regions,” Nicolls said.
SpaceX’s Starship rocket is still in development, after suffering a rocky year of testing in 2025. The company anticipates launching its next Starship test flight – which is meant to debut a new, more capable version of the rocket – as soon as this month.
In addition to the updated timeline, Nicolls also revealed that SpaceX is rebranding its Starlink direct-to-cell service, which provides connectivity from space to smartphones, as Starlink Mobile.
Nicolls said that SpaceX now has 650 satellites with Starlink Mobile capabilities and has 10 million monthly active users. The company expects to exceed 25 million monthly active users by the end of 2026, he said. – Bloomberg
