The Race To Put the Internet In Orbit

摘要

Richard Branson had snuck off into the corner of the room to buy a peaceful moment, but his scrag-gly blond mane and thick goatee are the opposite of a disguise. One by one, people approach, apologize for approaching, then rotate their bodies into a hug as they raise their phones for their obligatory photos. Branson can't escape the steady stream of selfie takers, even at another company's rocket launch. The other company is OneWeb, a satellite maker that's raised more than $2 billion from Branson's Virgin Group and the likes of SoftBank, Coca-Cola, and Airbus to build a "space internet." The idea is to fire an estimated 1,980 satellites into orbit to beam signals below. On Feb. 27, Branson was one of a couple hundred spectators who joined OneWeb founder Greg Wyler at the edge of the Amazon rainforest in Kourou, French Guiana, to watch the first six satellites leave Earth.