Google invests $1 billion in SpaceX to build Internet satellite web

Originally published on January 24, 2015 SpaceX this week announced it has raised $1 billion from Google and Fidelity. It is believed this capital injection will be used to fund a project which the private rocket companys founder Elon Musk says will culminate in a new satellite-based Internet network designed to cover remote parts of the Earth currently lacking connectivity. The communications satellites would weigh less than 250 pounds, about half the size of the smallest communications satellites currently in commercial use, the Wall Street Journal reported. About 700 of these satellites are expected to be launched, which is 10 times the size of the largest current satellite constellation managed by Iridium Communications Inc., according to the Wall Street Journal.