With the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in April of last year, a lot of aid was given to Ukraine from international companies. One of these aids was provided by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company. SpaceX offered internet access to Ukraine with Starlink satellites in February.
But today there has been an important development in this regard. It turned out that Musk, who stated that the Starlink aid made by Elon Musk to Ukraine will cost the company $100 million by the end of the year, sent a letter to SpaceX for the project.
SpaceX has requested financial assistance from the Pentagon:
According to documents obtained by CNN, SpaceX was telling the Pentagon that it could not continue its Starlink aid in Ukraine. However, in the same letter, SpaceX asked the Pentagon to assume the financial burden of Starlink’s assistance to the Ukrainian government and military.
SpaceX stated the financial amount of this aid as $120 million by the end of the year and $400 million for the next 12 months. While SpaceX’s incoming letter created controversy on social media, new statements came from Elon Musk on the subject.
Rough attack on an official at the US Department of Defense: Corruption is at its best
Elon Musk’s response came to the sharing of Sawyer Merritt, who found SpaceX right in this regard. Merritt emphasized that the aid to Ukraine by a private company cannot remain free forever, citing the example of American defense companies, “Do they do their job for free?” exited as. The response from Elon Musk to this post was as follows:
“It’s strange that nothing has been leaked about Lockheed & Boeing, our space launch and communications rivals, worth over $60 billion… It wouldn’t be surprising to see this specific person working there when he retires from the Department of Defense. Corruption is the best.”
“Starlink is still losing money”
“Besides, Starlink is still losing money! It’s insanely difficult for a LEO communications group to avoid bankruptcy – that was the fate of any company that had tried this before. When asked what the purpose of Starlink was at a space conference, I said “not to go bankrupt.”
“SpaceX doesn’t want to recoup past expenses, it also cannot finance the current system indefinitely *and* ships several thousand more terminals with up to 100 times more data usage than typical households. This is unreasonable.”
SpaceX spends $20 million a month on Starlink aid to Ukraine:
“In addition to terminals, we must install, launch, maintain and refurbish satellites and ground stations to access the Internet through gateways and pay telecommunications systems. We also had to defend against increasingly difficult cyber attacks and interference. Spending is approaching ~$20 million per month.”
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