SpaceX will not pursue an initial public offering of its Starlink unit this year, according to Bret Johnsen, the company’s chief financial officer.
“It’d be more in the years to come,” Johnsen said Tuesday at an industry conference. The unit became profitable for the first time at the end of last year, he said while declining to provide more details.Gwynne Shotwell, the company’s chief operating officer, first floated the idea of a spinoff for Starlink in 2020.
Shotwell said the company hopes to conduct the next Starship test flight in about six weeks, though that likely won’t have satellites on board. She wants to use the vehicle to deploy satellites, as well as demonstrate the ability to recover the rocket and its massive booster after flight. This capability puts lasers on board satellites, giving them the ability to communicate with each other and share data.