Why Elon Musk Fired Starlink's First Bosses in 2018

Business Onion · 2:58

On 23 September 2026, Canada's prime minister Mark Carney said Canada would "diversify away" from Starlink. That's hard, because nobody else has built a satellite network anywhere near its size. Part 1 of THE STARLINK BET goes back to 2015 to show why: every company that tried before lost its investors' money, and SpaceX bet it could make the rocket, the satellite and the dish cheap enough. Numbers & sources: Carney quote — New York Times interview, 23 Sep 2026 (as reported by Canadian outlets). Iridium's build cost is put at $5–7 billion depending on the source, so we say "more than five billion"; its satellites were bought out of bankruptcy in November 2000 for $25 million ($6.5M cash + $18.5M convertible debt). The June 2018 firings ("at least seven senior managers") are from Reuters; SpaceX called it a reorganization. Juncosa's "too chicken" line is from Walter Isaacson's biography, Elon Musk (2023). The ~$3,000 first-dish cost is Gwynne Shotwell's figure as reported by CNBC (April 2021); Musk put it at "more than $1,000" in June 2021, after the first cost cuts. Sources: Musk's Seattle talk, 16 Jan 2015 (GeekWire transcript); Shotwell at TED2018; Reuters, 31 Oct 2018; Isaacson, Elon Musk (2023); FCC filings; SpaceX S-1 (2026). Some scenes are cinematic reconstructions of documented events. All quotes, dates, and figures are verified.