Key Points

• The FCC authorized SpaceX to begin rolling out as many as 1 million ground antenna for its Starlink internet project.
• Starlink is an ambitious network of about 12,000 satellites that SpaceX wants to use to provide high-speed internet to anywhere in the world.
• “It looks like a UFO on a stick,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said of these ground antenna in an interview earlier this month.

Here’s what to expect from private space companies in 2020 and beyond

SpaceX got a key government license last week, federal filings reveal, as the company clears a regulatory hurdle that moves it closer to offering a new high-speed internet service from space.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has authorized SpaceX to begin rolling out as many as 1 million of the ground antenna the company will need to connect users to its Starlink satellite internet network. Starlink is SpaceX’s plan to build an interconnected network, or “constellation,” of about 12,000 small satellites, to provide high-speed internet to anywhere in the world. The company has launched 360 Starlink satellites in the past year.

The license details that each ground antenna is 0.48 meters in diameter, or just under 19 inches across.

“It looks like a UFO on a stick,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in an interview earlier this month. “It’s very important that you don’t need a specialist to install. The goal is for ... just two instructions and they can be done in either order: Point at sky, plug in.”