Goal Is Satellite-Delivered Access To The Internet

Google may pour nearly $1 billion into SpaceX to assist in Elon Musk's effort to establish satellite-based Internet service through a constellation of small spacecraft.

The Wall Street Journal cites a source described as a "person familiar with the matter" who says that the investment would place the value of SpaceX at more than $10 billion. It is not clear what Google gets out of the deal in terms of a stake in the company, according to the source.

The WSJ reports that Google has been looking for a way into space since 2013, when it hired industry veteran Greg Wyler and put him in charge of 10 people to work on the project. Wyler has since left the company to develop his own similar project ... OneWeb, which recently announced a partnership with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.

Musk reportedly had discussions with Wyler last year, but the two could not agree on control of a joint project, according to the sources. Wyler controls a large block of radio spectrum that he hopes can be used for data transfer to and from the orbiting satellites.

While SpaceX may have a head start on building spacecraft and launch systems to deploy them, there is still a concern about the terrestrial infrastructure needed to move data through space. That part of the puzzle has consistently proven to be problematic in previous attempts to offer satellite-based Internet access.

FMI: www.spacex.com, www.google.com