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Starlink and Ukraine War discussion
- Thread starter mspohr
- Start date
Elon has done a lot but so have others. Countries in Europe taking in hundreds of thousands of refugees. And many other nations have contributed billions of both humanitarian and military aid.
dazedNconfuzed
Member
Elon acknowledged that one can lightly spray-paint Dishy for camouflage, so long as there are no metallic particles in the paint.
dazedNconfuzed
Member
Am wondering if this will lead to disallowing Starlink in some countries, as unapproved capabilities can be enabled at Elon's whim, or because Elon benefitted an opponent (i.e.: will Starlink be banned from Russia because of this use in Ukraine?).
Countries have rules and an approval process. Starlink must follow them. I assume Ukraine approves of the Starlink mods.
I don't think Starlink is approved for use in Russia and it's not likely to be approved. No ground stations.
Starlink was always unlikely to be approved in Russia or other similar totalitarian states. Elons moves changes nothing. The positive PR for this move far, far outweighs anything negative. And besides it was the right thing to do.
Nikxice
Active Member
Dave Lee does a nice job summarizing Elon's recent tweets related to Ukraine and Starlink. Concerning possible cyber attacks/signal jamming, perhaps only half-jokingly Elon indicates this war is a good Q&A test for SpaceX.
It's typical of Elon to act on behalf of the greater good of humanity. It appears he's throwing the full weight of SpaceX's talent behind helping Ukraine. A minor downside is a further, slight delay of Starship's first orbital attempt.
It's typical of Elon to act on behalf of the greater good of humanity. It appears he's throwing the full weight of SpaceX's talent behind helping Ukraine. A minor downside is a further, slight delay of Starship's first orbital attempt.
I wonder what SpaceX would be allowed to do in Ukraine after the war? Would they risk US military contracts with a shop out of the US?
SpaceX shifts resources to cybersecurity to address Starlink jamming
Citing Starlink jamming “near conflict areas,” Elon Musk said March 5 that SpaceX will be "reprioritzed to cyber defense & overcoming signal jamming."
spacenews.com
If Vlad's cronies take over, Starlink will almost certainly be asked to cease service. If Ukraine prevails, odds are Starlink will be allowed to continue and any regulatory clean up within the Ukranian system will be done with the efficiency of an eastern bloc favor. Seems like ~concurrent with the invasion threat, Starlink started the more official process to get approval for operation in the Ukraine...then with a tweet from the President, defecto approval was granted.
Elaborate--I'm not sure I see any risk or conflict there.
Could SpaceX utilize the Ukrainian aerospace companies to build rockets? Having another production plant has many advantages but would the military feel comfortable with this arrangement?
Background on all of this.
spacenews.com
SpaceX worked for weeks to begin Starlink service in Ukraine
SpaceX’s president says the company worked for weeks to win approval for Starlink services in Ukraine before a minister tweeted a request to Elon Musk.
spacenews.com
Ah, got it.
So certainly there's a depth of aerospace design and manufacturing in the Ukraine, and its certainly worth contemplating what happens to that expertise in a future where the Ukraine allies with western nations.
From a US perspective however, its kind of a non-starter (hence my "don't see any risk/conflict" comment...which in hindsight may have been better articulated as "don't see any opportunity"...) The root issue is that any kind of relationship is going to be too volatile and well out of bounds relative to national security. For obvious reasons, the DOJ tightly controls certain elements of US rocket technology....more than most of the other stuff we come up with, including a lot of other defense technologies, and even when it comes to friendly/western countries. That's even before you consider Vlad losing this round and still maintaining power--no way that plays out without a round 2 in the Ukraine.
From a SpaceX perspective, that kind of partnership is just not their MO. They're highly verticalized and work at an unprecedented pace. Leveraging the legacy industry base in the Ukraine (just as anywhere else) would go against both of those concepts. There's a logistical element in play as well--most Russian/Ukrainian space hardware is sent via rail out to the various launch facilities in Russia/Kazakhstan, with some stuff being flown in. In a hypothetical spaceX+Ukraine relationship, hardware would have to be transported quite a ways away--certainly to the US for the foreseeable future, but even in the fantasy world where Starship is used for PTP, any of those PTP ports will likely be a long way from the Ukraine.
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