Since they first started arriving in Ukraine last spring, the Starlink satellite internet terminals made by Elon Musk’s SpaceX have been a vital source of communication for Ukraine’s military, allowing it to fight and stay connected even as cellular phone and internet networks have been destroyed in its war with Russia. SpaceX has warned the Pentagon that it may stop funding the service in Ukraine unless the US military kicks in tens of millions of dollars per month. #CNN #News
Musk’s Spacex says it will stop paying for key technology helping Ukraine fight the Russians
Musk: I’m going to be the first person to bring human beings to Mars, no matter the cost! It’s very important that I get credit for it!
Also Musk: Helping other human beings devastated by war? God, I can’t afford that. Who do you think I am? The richest guy on Earth?
@Linus A U do suggest an interesting solution to bankrolling Starlink in Ukraine.
Given that the economic scope for consumers continues to dwarf the scope of satcom requirements by the military (to my knowledge), via modernization of satcom systems; US-China economic competition [SpaceX’s Starlink systems r actually vry advanced n contain ton of hard-to-reproduce tech], and the fact that SpaceX is a private company: I believe ur suggested result unlikely.
Worst-case: a Starlink spinoff? That’d b contradictory to the Army’s desire for a managed service model of satcom tho.
What satcom provider r u referring to, if u don’t mind disclosing?
@dan Wish I could, this was back when cell phones were new.
😆
I feel like the chance to basically beta test a massive starlink network under some of the harshes conditions would more then make up for the cost of operation.
He has gotten enough for last last 7 months
Pull the support and see what happens to poor little Ukraine.
@Spring Bloom
Cool 😎
But I don’t believe you.
I’ll comment to your Expertise on demolition and bridges. Let’s see if you can keep up.
This could so easily have been Starlinks’ biggest marketing campaign – there must have been millions of potential customers around the world who were (WERE !) considering this system – Starlink could have said 10% of every sale sends a terminal to Ukraine, surely sales would have soared after that.
Instead they appear to have gone from Hero’s of Democracy, to Grinches of Capitalism…
They would do well to remember what the demographic is;- Democratic countries!
(China has it’s own ‘Baidoo’ system and Russia doesn’t want people accessing non state controlled media)
Musk……Un-Trustworthy!
How much have you donated?
Worse than that: MuskRat has gone “from Hero of Democracy, to Grinch of Capitalism” to Putz of Putin!..
When I first heard about Musk’s Starlink donation to Ukraine, I thought that here, finally is an example of a billionaire (perhaps the richest in the world) making a positive, impactful contribution to the world. He could have gone down in history as the unselfish information arsenal of democracy. But, if he just wants to be the billionaire businessman that knows how to leverage a desperate situation to make even more money, then it’s ok that he wants to have his equipment and services paid for – as long as he provides the service reliably and doesn’t slow or disrupt the service anytime someone doesn’t genuflect to satisfy his ego. Ultimately it is a lesson to every country (including the USA) to not count on the whims of any one man when the security of your nation is at stake.
@Party Pat us govt don’t expect crap in return. They created this whole war
Maybe this is the signal for courntries to use the budget for space programs and the army into building their own Satellite Internet Service
@loose lips sink ships already is
What side are you on clown.
May you be the first one
@Spring Bloom for integrity and safety. While we do support ukraine, NATO members do not want non-NATO countries to have full access to their classified military networks.
It’s reasonable, it is a for-profit business and they have expenses including salaries to pay. On the flip side, as of today Musk is worth almost $216B, it seems a personal donation of a few hundred $M for such a worthy cause would be a no brainer that would not affect his lifestyle whatsoever.
Give Putin some credit. He knows how to make a convincing argument to people without a spine.
Elon Musk didn’t give donations. He gave a free trial period!
@Spring Bloom That is not a good analogy at all.
@Ben B Yes, Muskrat treats his workers with contempt. Remember he broke the law to put employees at risk of COVID-19 in his Fremont factory?
It cost 20 million a month, in the end of the day it was free service but their a point that u can’t fund this forever. Tell me what company will do this for free last time I check no other company is offering help. Space x it’s not the only company that offers satellite internet
He was giving Ukraine free internet. And now he asks American tax payers to pay for it, instead of him. Why are you upset? Why should he pay for something if you refuse to do the same?
in the meantime , thousands bought the starlink comm set for double the prize ! but yeah i did expect that from someone who also likes to push the wrong buttons in case of a certain conflict !
I think this is reasonable. If Ukraine wants to keep using Starlink, they should have to pay the money for it. Space Ex is not a charity.
Musk provided the service to make a global show and, with the UAF, to create a demand that now can hardly be directed towards other systems. Without this kind of “donation”, UAF would have received military communication terminals from a number of NATO countries, there is no shortage of such terminals and this could have brought to better integration of UAF with NATO. I would now recommend NATO to start providing these terminals instead and phase out all of starlink, with the obvious follow-up of a declaration that reliance from a unreliable provider was cut. Personally, will never buy anything from Mr “putinlover” Musk.
Starlink outages for Ukraine’s miltary seem very close to incapacitating to certain critical capabilities – speaks for itself. Bottom line, the risk of nuclear escalation is exposing his global mega wealth-enterprise to high risk of bankruptcy. Perhaps, its time for the US Federal government to re-examine it’s dealing with Elon given his arbitrariness, with a keen eye for exposing itself to national security risks.
and what national security risk(s) would that be, exactly?
meanwhile the US (FCC) is considering 12 GHZ band for 5G which could likely interfere with Starlink. Perhaps they could negotiate a compromise where Starlink could lose some of its capabilities due to 12 ghz (5G) ground interference. Elon, what are your thoughts on that compromise?
I know I love it. Poetic Justice.
Polls about Ukraine and Taiwan and disruption of Starlink over Ukraine all at the same time doesn’t just seem like a coincidence.
Given the military value of so many of the things being given to Ukraine, I’d think the Starlink service ranks high. Even the Ukrainian general said so. So why not have the US DoD fund the continuation of the service? Musk already exceeded his original commitment — DoD, keep it going.
Good idea.
So, ummm…how is there any additional cost involved in use of the Starlink systems that are already there? The satellites have been launched, the terminals have been built and shipped. What ongoing expense is there for SpaceX to address in letting Ukraine use the service?
you mean the normal expenses required to maintain an Internet service? this involves costly machines, labour, technology and alot of electricity. whos going to pay for all that? Starlink has to.
Because he’s not making money off of it. He’s trying to change that. Enough to make you question why he did it in the first place. There’s always something
Smart move by Musk, a business man. Give a country a free-trial of an essential service to establish dependence and demonstrate effectiveness, say you’ll pull the plug under a reasonable thing that it’s a costly expense, persuade the US Government to pay for the product. Oh and guess who picks up the tab? US Taxpayers.
Western tech companies should come together and help fund the Starlink terminals in Ukraine and provide Ukraine with any other technological support it needs to win this war.
Why? What’s in it for them? You think big Corp gonna help a country that’s probably half destroyed for no gains?
Elon Musk was the one who provided the technology to the Ukrainians that even allowed them to report, communicate, spread word to the world on what was happening, locate Russian invaders, etc. I think it is super hypocritical to talk down on Elon’s contributions to help the Ukrainians. Without Starlink, Ukraine would not have the communication capabilities to win and most likely would have lost, not only on the battlefield but in the international community when support was needed. Documentation, reporting, all of it came through Starlink for the majority of the battle and would not have been possible to provide otherwise. We need to give him credit and actually be GRATEFUL for his contributions rather than critical. If he did not help Ukraine, Ukraine would have already fallen.
@jason scales Yes if you’re a realist. No, if you’re not a realist. At the end of the day, it’s not outrageous and is in the realm of practicality. Know your limits, goals, and your surroundings in a manner that is practical to your comfortable solution. Don’t want a comfortable solution? Then expect further bloodshed and brutality to come for that hard solution. In this case, the total reclamation of all Ukrainian Lands.
@VZ That would actually make it worse. If you’re ok with half your house being annexed today, that only emboldens the invader to try to annex the other half tomorrow.
@jason scales no one wants Russia to declare any level of victory, but for them not to leads to a potential nuclear end game. Isn’t that obvious….? Still it is a very touchy topic for understandable reasons. You think Elon meant harm for the Ukrainians?
@Jerrad Wilson Yes, but it’s not my house in this case. If it was, then I would do what I can to fight for my other half of the house and in the worst case scenario- I would compromise for a comfortable solution to my house dilemma. People really need to grapple the options and practicalness for themselves and for others.
spacex demo-ed the most expensive skylinks for pentagon – encrypted communication,missile and drone grade network (plus satellite internet hub of course).