SpaceX has declared that it’s going to make Starlink Mobile a “major” mobile carrier. The Elon Musk-owned company has already deployed thousands of direct-to-cell satellites, but its next big challenge is building out its 5G network here on Earth.

As part of its plans to rival AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, SpaceX has inked a deal with Qualcomm, which will deploy its cellular technology across tens of thousands of 5G cell sites starting in 2027. SpaceX is also reportedly in talks to buy Boost Mobile, potentially allowing it to launch Starlink Mobile through the service. Another report suggests SpaceX may tap into 80,000 cell sites across the US to build out its network.

SpaceX’s big plans have garnered some reactions in the telecom industry. Tim Höttges, the CEO of T-Mobile’s parent company Deutsche Telekom, said he takes SpaceX’s plans “super serious” but that it could cost Musk more than $200 billion to pull off.

Follow along for the latest updates on Starlink’s major mobile carrier ambitions.

• What will it take for SpaceX to launch its “major” mobile network?
• SpaceX is working with Qualcomm to build its Starlink Mobile 5G network
• SpaceX could buy Boost Mobile as part of its big mobile carrier plans
• SpaceX’s mobile carrier push reportedly involves tapping into 80,000 cell sites
• SpaceX announces plan to become a ‘major mobile carrier’
• SpaceX is coming for T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon

The head of T-Mobile's parent company is casting doubt on SpaceX's plans to make Starlink Mobile a "major" carrier in the US. During an earnings call on Thursday, Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges says he takes the Elon Musk-owned company "super serious," but that it will cost at least $200 billion to pull off:

He [Musk] has now bought 76 megahertz of spectrum. By the way, we have 400. So if you now say he can buy the spectrum prospectively, do your math. These are kind of triple-digit billions which are needed to gain the spectrum position. If he has the money, go for it. Then he has to build a network. I can tell you, we have 85,000 tower …

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Blue Origin plans to do its next New Glenn rocket launch in January 2027, according to CNBC and the Financial Times, which cite a memo from CEO Dave Limp sent to staff. The new timeline follows a May launchpad explosion that damaged Blue Origin's New Glenn launchpad ahead of a flight that would have brought Amazon Leo satellites into space.

In October, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos told Fox News that the company was aiming for a December New Glenn launch, joking that it could be "probably December 31st." The new, revised launch window is "about 10 days later than Blue Origin's earlier launch target," CNBC reports. Limp also reportedly cite …

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Yesterday NASA announced the latest addition to its X-series of experimental aircraft that have included the Bell X-1 that first broke the sound barrier nearly 80 years ago, and the more recent X-59 quiet supersonic demonstrator. The new X-70 Fractal is designed to be a "high-performance, highly adaptable research platform" that NASA can use as a testbed for the development and testing of next-generation aviation technologies.

The agency only released an AI-generated image of the X-70 shrouded in smoke and shadows, but confirmed several of the plane's capabilities. It will be a crewed aircraft with a cruising speed of Mach .75 that can reac …

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United has built a custom, native Spotify app for seatback displays, allowing passengers to log directly in to their personal accounts and stream their own libraries, playlists, and video podcasts while flying 35,000 feet in the air. The new integration is being powered by Starlink's satellite Wi-Fi, which is currently being installed throughout United's entire fleet.

The news marks a major shift in legacy in-flight entertainment. Gone are the days of stethoscope-style plastic tubes, armrest dials, and canned playlists. These older airplane systems were built on the assumption that flights had no internet, so all movies and music had to be …

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One of the basic problems of spending too much time on social media is that you are cooking your brain by reading posts from a pack of attention-seeking lunatics. If your social media of choice is the site formerly known as Twitter, and it is your main source of contact with the outside world, you may delusionally throw away nearly $500 million dollars on midterm elections, just like Elon Musk.

In particular, $47 million of that money from Musk's America PAC was aimed at defeating Texas Democrat James Talarico, who trounced Musk's preferred Senate candidate, Ken Paxton, with 55 percent of the vote. Talarico even made Musk's influence a cent …

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SpaceX is teaming up with Qualcomm to build out its nationwide mobile network. Under the multi-year deal, SpaceX will bring Qualcomm's Dragonwing technology to "tens of thousands" of 5G cell sites across the US, with the first deployments set for 2027.

The news of the partnership comes as part of SpaceX's push to make Starlink Mobile a "major" carrier in the US, competing directly with T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. The Elon Musk-owned company has already snapped up a swath of spectrum, while recent reports suggested that SpaceX was exploring an acquisition of Boost Mobile.

Now, SpaceX is planning to use Qualcomm's Dragonwing Cellular Infras …

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Almost 22 years after it was launched, NASA's Swift Observatory is now about to fall back to Earth on Wednesday after attempts to push it back into a higher orbit failed. NASA announced that the aging space telescope is anticipated to re-enter Earth's atmosphere at approximately 3:30AM ET (give or take 11 hours) and that it expects most of the spacecraft to burn up, but some components will likely survive re-entry.

The observatory weighs around 3,200 pounds and measures in at 5.6 meters (18.4 feet) high and 5.4 meters (17.7 feet) wide, though much of the latter includes the observatory's deployable solar arrays. The risk of surviving compon …

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SpaceX has discussed a deal with Boost Mobile to launch its own service through the budget-friendly carrier, according to a report from The Washington Post. The deal, which comes as SpaceX aims to make Starlink a "major" mobile carrier, reportedly involves the Elon Musk-owned company acquiring Boost Mobile or accessing its network.

Musk discussed the potential agreement with Charlie Ergen, chairman of Boost Mobile parent company EchoStar, last month, as reported by The Washington Post. Boost Mobile's network is currently powered by T-Mobile and AT&T, meaning SpaceX may need permission from the two carriers to launch its service.

Neither …

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Gravity is a cruel mistress, slowly dragging the famed Hubble Space Telescope ever closer to its ultimate demise with every day. Hubble is in no immediate danger of burning up in the Earth's atmosphere, but its time will run out in the early to mid 2030s unless its orbit is boosted. So NASA is taking proposals from the private sector to see if anyone can save it.

In a post on NASA's site, Administrator Jared Isaacman said:

Hubble still has important science ahead of it, and we should be looking at every reasonable opportunity to keep it delivering for as long as possible … If there are innovative and cost-effective ways to extend the life …

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Google's AI chip-equipped satellite has generated its first response from space. In a blog post on Friday, Google says it successfully booted up the satellite's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), allowing the on-board Gemma 4 model to follow through on a prompt to create a haiku about being in space:

Blue marble below

Data streams in silent grace

Starlight feeds my core. ✨

Google says it tried out other space-themed limericks and telemetry prompts as well. The test is part of Google's Project Suncatcher, an experimental initiative that could eventually put AI data centers in space. Google launched the satellite into orbit earlier this …

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