SpaceX is reportedly churning out only 5,000 Starlink dishes each week for the satellite internet service. But the company is preparing to boost manufacturing later this year to help meet the massive consumer demand.
SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen revealed the manufacturing numbers during Tuesday’s Satellite 2021 conference in Maryland, according to reporters in attendance.
The company currently has over 600,000 pre-orders for Starlink. So producing only 5,000 dishes per week means SpaceX would need more than two years to address its backlog. Waiting that long would be especially painful for prospective Starlink users since many are saddled with unbearably slow internet speeds.
The good news is that SpaceX plans on increasing the 5,000-dish capacity by “multiples” in the coming months, according to Johnsen’s remarks at the conference.
SpaceX has blamed the ongoing chip shortage for limited Starlink dish manufacturing, a necessary requirement for a consumer to connect to the company’s satellite internet network.
The dishes are also expensive to make. The company sells them to consumers for $499 as a one-time fee for Starlink. But originally, the first dishes cost SpaceX $3,000 to produce before the company managed to reduce the manufacturing to $1,500 and then $1,300.
Last month, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said the dish production cost is expected to fall even more. “The ones we will have later this year will cost roughly half of what our current user terminals cost,” she said at the annual Space Symposium event. “And then we think we’ll be able to cut that in half yet again.”
Whether this means SpaceX will also reduce the $499 Starlink dish cost to consumers remains unclear. But lowering it would make Starlink more affordable, particularly for users on a budget. Subscriber also must pay $99 a month for the internet service.