$28.7 Million Awarded to SpaceX

Elon Musk can’t seem to avoid succeeding, considering the $28.7 million contract his imprinted SpaceX has procured from the United States Air Force. The money will go towards funding data connectivity research, which may relate to a recent statement from Elon Musk regarding free internet for nearly the entire planet’s population. Musk seems full of good intentions and grand ideas, but what sets him apart from your average dreamer is all the support he tends to receive from reputable entities, like the United States Air Force.
The fixed-price contract awarded to SpaceX is directly from the Air Force Research Laboratory and will help SpaceX make new strides in data connectivity. SpaceX will use the money to innovate and advance connectivity between ground sites, aircraft and space assets, which will also serve and assist the company’s own Starlink broadband satellite service. Although the contract was given to Elon Musk and his team this past Wednesday, the work involved isn’t due to be completed until mid-2021.
This project is part of a new Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Space Internet or DEUCSI, which will allow the United States Air Force to communicate across various satellite internet services, by utilizing common hardware components. This will, in turn, provide air force pilots with the ability to switch space internet providers for ease of flight, depending on favorable spectrums and geometry.
What’s more intriguing is that this awarded contract certainly proves that the air force is interested in space and satellite internet technology. Elon Musk, himself, has already mentioned using space internet to provide broadband access to areas that wouldn’t, otherwise, be able to take advantage of the internet. If SpaceX can succeed in achieving this ambitious goal, Elon Musk will go down in history as one of the most generous thinkers our age has ever seen.