A New Space Race Targets the Smartphone

The decades-old satellite industry is setting its sights on a target that until lately looked unreachable: the everyday smartphone. Better technology has convinced a who’s-who of aerospace stalwarts—plus some startups barely a few years old—to develop satellite networks that can talk to smartphones and other small gadgets on the ground. Among their most ambitious long-term goals, which some industry executives call far-fetched, is a fifth-generation mobile internet connection that glides seamlessly between cellphone towers near civilization and satellite beams out in the sticks.