Remember the Google (and Farcebook) Satellite System ? Yeah.. never mind.

[cbelt3]

http://qz.com/422775/facebook-and-google...pace-race/

"Who wasn’t excited to see Facebook and Google battle for dominance of low-earth orbit?
Alas, it wasn’t meant to be: both companies are shelving their ambitious plans for satellite internet. The tech-news site The Information reports that Facebook is dropping its plans for a geo-stationary satellite over concerns that it will not recoup costs. Google, which hired satellite entrepreneur Greg Wyler to prepare an satellite constellation in 2014, backed out of that plan earlier this year."


Hot air balloons fueled by marketing conventions are still an option, however....

[silvarios]

I thought Google's big push was project loon?

https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=project+loon&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#q=project+loon&tbm=nws

[ztirffritz]

One of Google's balloons crashed not too far from where I live.

http://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/g...06c63.html

[Black]

Would rather have them putting their resources into that than driverless cars. :drool:

[GGD]

Looks like SpaceX is planning to do what other have just given up on.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/e...ng_strip_2

[sekker]

GGD wrote:
Looks like SpaceX is planning to do what other have just given up on.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/e...ng_strip_2

Simple economics. Musk decided to do it, meaning they needed a different rocket vendor.

[Paul F.]

I'm guessing that Google hemmed and hawed, and then Elon Musk said "fine, if you're not going to do it, we will!"... giving Google the excuse they were looking for to bow out.
Just a guess, though... I'm not privy to Elon's thoughts, and probably couldn't understand most of them if I was.

Once the Falcon 9 1st stages go reusable, a "very low orbit" cloud of satellites becomes 5x cheaper to launch, which will lead to satellites not being "overbuilt" to last because they will be going in a time-limited orbit anyway, which will reduce satellite costs...
This is do-able...

[GGD]

Google and Fidelity invested $1 Billion back in January to help fund this.

http://www.space.com/28316-spacex-elon-m...tment.html

I wouldn't be surprised if dropping off some of these satellites becomes a standard non-primary task of many of SpaceX's paid launches. Just as their testing of their landing system is being done.

[vision63]

GGD wrote:
Google and Fidelity invested $1 Billion back in January to help fund this.

http://www.space.com/28316-spacex-elon-m...tment.html

I wouldn't be surprised if dropping off some of these satellites becomes a standard non-primary task of many of SpaceX's paid launches. Just as their testing of their landing system is being done.

Elon goes for his. More power to him.