SpaceX plans to introduce a new version of its user terminal for its Starlink broadband delivery system later this year that will be less expensive to produce while also scaling up production, reports Space News.
SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen said in a panel discussion at the Satellite 2021 conference in Maryland last week, the company is losing money on the user terminals it sells to Starlink subscribers. The terminals cost a lot more than the $499 price set by the company. “Right now, we are not at a point where we want to be from a cost perspective versus what we’re charging,” he said. “If you can get that user terminal cost down, that’s really the Holy Grail for the consumer side of the business.”
At a space conference last month, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said the company was trying to cut the cost of the terminals in half by the end of this year, and then in half again. Johnsen confirmed a new version of the user terminal, whose production cost will be reduced by “a little over half,” will be rolled out later this fall.
Currently, SpaceX produces about 5,000 user terminals a week. He said production will increase to “multiples of that” in the next few months but did not offer a more specific production target, according to Space News.
The new terminal also features changes to address supply chain issues with some components. “We had some supply chain constraints, just like everybody else related to consumer electronics, for the last few months on the current dish,” he said. “We modified the bill of materials where we needed to such that we wouldn’t have those constraints when the new dish rolls out in the next couple months.”
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