SpaceX is building Starlink satellites faster than it can launch them

CEO Elon Musk says SpaceX is churning out Starlink satellites faster than it can launch them, the best sign yet that the company is having some amazing success in what is already the most productive satellite factory in history. Since SpaceX first revealed its radical flat-satellite Starlink design, stacking approach, and deployment mechanism back in May 2019, the company has successfully launched an incredible 300 satellites, ~290 of which are still functioning as intended. At this point, that means that Starlink is likely the largest satellite constellation in history by a factor of two, crushing the second largest’s ~150 satellites. Perhaps even more significant is the mass of SpaceX’s nine-month-old constellation, currently standing at more than 75 metric tons (165,000 lb) of satellites in orbit.