Space for the day

Geoffrey Smith has a Fortune article about SpaceX and Google:

Google is close to sealing a major investment in SpaceX, the private spacecraft venture backed by Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk.
The tech website theinformation.com reported that the deal would refocus Google’s efforts to join the race to provide internet-by-satellite after its own in-house project stalled last year.
SpaceX and its largest rival, Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, say they can bring low-cost internet access around the world to billions who don’t yet have it, but the start-up costs they face are literally astronomical.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Google could commit a billion dollars in a deal valuing SpaceX at ten billion dollars or more. If true, that would confound critics who have argued that the SpaceX project is more hype than substance.
Reports of the deal come less than a week after Virgin and Qualcomm Group Inc. invested in Greg Wyler’s OneWeb Ltd, which wants to build a global internet service on a network of 648 lightweight satellites to be placed in a low-earth orbit. Branson and Qualcomm chairman Paul Jacobs will both take board seats at OneWeb.
Wyler left Google last year, after being hired to head up the company’s in-house project for internet-by-satellite.
Google’s money could help SpaceX, which has so far concentrated on making spacecraft and launch rockets, to branch out into making the satellites it would need to build its network, The Wall Street Journal said.
OneWeb has a crucial advantage over SpaceX at present, in that it already has rights to radio spectrum that would allow it to transmit data. Reports speculate that Musk is looking at untried alternative technologies for transmitting data.
Branson has claimed that there physically isn’t space in the radio spectrum for a competitor, and has urged Musk to consider joining forces.

Rico says that Google rarely invests in things that don't make money, but Musk and Branson? A killer team.