Elon Musk said SpaceX would continue to fund its Starlink service in Ukraine on Saturday, Oct. 15, reversing the company’s efforts to ask the Pentagon to foot the bill.
The CEO and billionaire of SpaceX wrote on Twitter that his spaceflight company will continue to provide the Starlink service for free to Ukraine, which is recently battling a Russian invasion, after saying earlier this month that the effort has cost SpaceX $80 million (opens in new). window) to date.
“To hell with Array. . . even if Starlink continues to lose cash and corporations get billions of taxpayer dollars, we will continue to fund the Ukrainian government for free,” Musk wrote (opens in new tab) on Twitter on Saturday.
Related: Elon Musk says SpaceX may not continue to invest Starlink in Ukraine, asks Pentagon to take over
To hell with that. . . even if Starlink continues to lose cash and corporations get billions of taxpayer dollars, we will continue to fund the Ukrainian government for free. October 15, 2022
Musk follows a CNN report (opens in a new tab) about a letter from SpaceX asking the U. S. military to help the U. S. militaryThe U. S. government will start covering prices for the Starlink service in Ukraine. CNN reported (opens in a new tab) that SpaceX wrote to the Pentagon in September to say the company may no longer offer Starlink service in Ukraine for free, adding that it would charge the company $120 million for the rest of 2022 and about $400 million for the next 12 months.
“We are in a position to give more terminals to Ukraine, nor to finance existing terminals indefinitely,” the letter said.
Elon Musk and SpaceX began sending Starlink terminals that supply the company’s satellite web service in Ukraine in late February, shortly after Russian troops invaded and Ukrainian officials issued a public appeal for help.
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said at the time that the company had been executing the task for weeks before Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and minister of virtual transformation, issued a call for help to Twitter on Feb. 26. On the 28th, the first Starlink terminals were on the ground in Ukraine.
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In early April, SpaceX and USAID announced a public-private partnership that delivered 5,000 Starlink terminals to Ukraine, adding up to more than 3,000 provided through SpaceX. To date, SpaceX has installed nearly 20,000 terminals in Ukraine, according to (opens in a new tab) the New York Times.
SpaceX’s Starlink Internet service is a space-based broadband network that aims to provide global high-speed Internet access using a vast constellation of orbiting satellites. To do this, SpaceX has introduced satellites at a prolific rate, with dozens of satellites placed in orbit. Immediate launches almost weekly. The service costs $110 per month, with an initial one-time hardware charge of $599.
SpaceX’s latest Starlink launch came on Oct. 5, when the company placed another 52 Starlink satellites into orbit. SpaceX has launched more than 3400 Starlink satellites so far to build a constellation of 12,000 satellites. The company also requested permission to launch another 30,000 satellites to bolster its network.
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Tariq is the editor-in-chief of Space. com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and editor, then as an editor. It covers human area flights, area exploration and science, as well as sky and entertainment. become editor-in-chief of Space. com in 2009 and editor-in-chief in 2019. Prior to joining Space. com, Tariq was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times covering education and city rhythms at La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington. In October 2022, Tariq won the Harry Kolcum Award (opens in new tab) for excellence in National Space Club Florida committee area reporting. to Space Camp 4 times as a child and a fifth time as an adult. He holds degrees in journalism from the University of Southern California and New York University. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik (opens in new tab).
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