Elon Musk ‘in talks’ with airlines to install Starlink broadband

Starlink, the satellite internet unit of SpaceX, plans to deploy 12,000 satellites. SpaceX has said the Starlink constellation will cost it roughly $10 billion.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk said in a tweet on Thursday he was in talks with airlines about installing Starlink, a satellite-based broadband service owned by his rocket company SpaceX. Musk, who is known for his Twitter banter, announcements, and lively interactions with followers, did not provide any details about the talks in his tweet. It was not immediately clear which airlines were approached or when installation would occur.

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, speaks during the Satellite 2020 at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC.  (AFP)

Shares of in-flight internet provider Gogo Inc fell to an intraday low of 5.7 per cent before recouping some of the losses in afternoon trading.

Starlink, the satellite internet unit of SpaceX, plans to deploy 12,000 satellites. SpaceX has said the Starlink constellation will cost it roughly $10 billion.

It is one of a growing number of companies making small satellites that also includes Amazon.com's Kuiper, Britain's OneWeb, venture capital-backed Planet, and Raytheon Technologies Corp's Blue Canyon Technologies.

Musk currently helms companies including electric-car maker Tesla Inc, rocket startup SpaceX, and Neuralink, a startup that is developing ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect the human brain to computers.