XSPC
Bigger rocket, bigger ambition
SpaceX is back at the FCC with a request that basically says: if the sky is the limit, can we borrow a lot more of it? The company filed on July 6th to seek approval for up to 100,000 third-generation Starlink satellites, a massive expansion of the network.
Why this matters
These Gen3 satellites would sit in very low Earth orbit and are meant to deliver lower-latency, multi-gigabit internet for consumers, businesses, governments, and the kind of AI-powered devices everyone keeps pretending are still a side quest. SpaceX is arguing that AI needs way more bandwidth, especially for uploads, which is a pretty polite way of saying the current pipes may not be enough for the next wave.
Starship enters the chat
Elon Musk also chimed in on X, joking that SpaceX is going to need "a bigger rocket" — meaning Starship. That matters because the new satellites are expected to be larger and more capable than earlier versions, which makes Starship the delivery truck for the whole plan.
The fine print
A few investor-relevant wrinkles:
- The filing is only a request, not approval. The FCC can still slow-roll or reject parts of it.
- It comes as the FCC is also weighing a broader Space Modernization Order on July 22nd that could streamline satellite licensing.
- SpaceX is also separately asking for permission to deploy up to 1 million satellites for orbital data centers, which is either futuristic infrastructure or the world’s most ambitious sci-fi side hustle.
Big picture: SpaceX is trying to turn Starlink from “fast internet from space” into a giant AI infrastructure play. If regulators let Musk keep building, the moonshot gets a whole lot more real.