Economic model of costs required to create and operate the Starlink fast internet system

One of the main directions in the development of cosmonautics is creation and operation of the small satellites’ constellations. This is especially efficient in the telecommunications area ensuring quick exchange of information in any point on the Earth. According to statistical studies, more than 41% of the world population is still missing access to the World Wide Web. Therefore, elaboration of an economic model of costs required to create and operate a broadband satellite Internet system appears to be an urgent task. OneWeb, Telesat, Amazon and LeoSat obtained permissions to build such systems, but only SpaceX launched 1,440 satellites and actually built the first stage of its Starlink v1.0 system. SpaceX originally planned to launch 4,000 satellites, then received permission for 12,000 and now applied for 40,000. This means that mass production of satellites, launch vehicles and Internet terminals would be required. Thus, the model should consider cost reduction when reusing the first stage of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and in mass production, for example, through a learning curve that takes into account the increase in labor productivity. A new comprehensive model was elaborated to calculate costs for deploying 60 Starlink satellites using a partially reusable Falcon 9 launch vehicle. Investment project efficiency and its payback period are estimated by the Net Present Value (NPV). Cost of developing the entire system is considered as the initial investment. Economic simulation makes it possible to establish critical condition in efficiency and payback period of the Starlink development and operation project, i.e. the rate of user growth in numbers should be higher or equal to three million per year. With the rate of 3.8 and 7.5 million users per year, the net present value by the end of 2025 would amount to USD 9.8 and 35.4 billion, and the payback period would be 4.5 and 3.2 years.