Space-X — the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station — is currently working on a web of small low-cost satellites that could provide a world-wide wireless Internet service. CEO Elon Musk said that his company is in “the early stages of developing advanced micro-satellites operating in large formations”, and that further details will be released early next year.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the entrepreneur behind the Tesla electric-car business has hired satellite expert Greg Wyler, who previously spent time working on a similar mission at Google. Space-X is said to be working on “a relatively low-cost way to put about 700 satellites — each weighing less than 250lb — into orbit to provide wireless Internet anywhere on the planet”.

Meanwhile, Google announced recently that it has signed a 60-year lease to run a NASA airbase. Its Planetary Ventures subsidiary will use the Moffett Field in Silicon Valley for R&D work in space exploration, aviation, robotics and other emerging technologies, according to a NASA statement.

The company already uses Moffett for its top executives’ jets. The field is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay, a 10-min drive from the Googleplex headquarters in Mountain View. Google will pay $1.16 billion to run the 1,000-acre facility and will spend $200 million restoring three huge ‘blimp’ hangars, the largest of which covers a total of eight acres.