Starlink’s rapid growth is transforming Elon Musk's SpaceX into an internet and national security powerhouse even as rivals race to challenge its lead

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Starlink just crossed nine million customers, less than two months after hitting eight million. SpaceX launched the service in 2019 as a bet that low-Earth-orbit satellites could deliver broadband fast enough to matter in places cable had never reached. 

The internet service now operates in 155 countries, territories, and markets, with more than 9,000 satellites in orbit. It adds about 21,000 new users every day, the kind of upward curve that helps explain why SpaceX is reportedly aiming to go public this summer at a valuation near $1.75 trillion.

Elon Musk has called it "by far" SpaceX's largest revenue driver, and the IPO paperwork reviewed by Reuters backs him up. Starlink doubled its operating income last year to $4.42 billion, more than enough to cover losses in SpaceX's rocket and space division.

That growth has turned Starlink into the financial engine for everything else SpaceX wants to build. It has also turned it into a target.

The flywheel is spinning

Cable companies stopped running........

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