SpaceX is on a mission to beam cheap, high-speed internet to consumers all over the globe. The project is called Starlink, and if it's successful it could forever alter the landscape of the telecom industry.

This is not likely to happen. There is another side to this. As a physicist, the future of an experiment I’m working on and the futures of many long standing experiments are having funding withheld/postponed for this reason. If Elon gets these thousands of satellites into space it could ruin ground based telescope experiments. The massive amount of debris is going to interfere with observations for years to come as it will block the line of site. It’s also going to affect a number of defense and communication satellites. You can’t just launch thousands of objects in space all at once and not expect it affect anything. Elon Musk is currently facing a lot of push back politically for this reason. I love the idea, but it is currently underdeveloped and problematic.

/r/Futurology Thread Link - cnn.com