Steckel said OneWeb and its manufacturing partner, Airbus (EADSF), had to iron out issues in their production system and supply chain. But now that those issues are resolved, he estimates satellites will be rolling off assembly lines smoothly for the remainder of the year, and a second batch of more than 30 satellites will be ready for flight as soon as March. Only one other company is manufacturing telecommunications satellites on such a large scale: Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The company is building its own constellation of internet satellites that already includes more than 200 devices and is expected to grow to more than 1,500 over the next 11 months. SpaceX and OneWeb are both basing their satellite internet businesses on the same ethos: rather than connecting people using traditional ground-based technologies — such as cables and cell towers, which still don’t reach billions of people around the globe — a hive of satellites orbiting a few hundred miles up can blanket the entire planet in high-speed internet service. OneWeb plans to officially open for business in 2021. It will begin by selling services to governments and corporate customers that provide internet service to airplanes, ships and boats. Eventually, the company will sell bandwidth to consumer internet providers, such as Comcast and Verizon, said Steckel, OneWeb’s CEO. SpaceX, which is aiming to start offering its broadband service as soon as mid-2020, is taking a different approach. It hopes to bring internet service straight to consumers, competing directly with traditional internet service providers. The coming months will be crucial: The companies will burn through massive amounts of cash as they build and launch hundreds of satellites — and OneWeb will do it all without bringing in a dime of revenue. That can be a tough pill to swallow, Steckel acknowledged. “We are taking our money and doing something very exciting, the problem is that it seems intangible because [our assets] are flying around in space,” Steckel, the CEO, said. “But really we’re investing in infrastructure.” Courtesy Surrey Space Centre/University of Surrey/2016 Related article