Current Events > SpaceX Admits Blocking Ukrainian Troops from Using Satellite Technology.

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's a great company, eh...

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/09/politics/spacex-ukrainian-troops-satellite-technology/index.html

"The president of SpaceX revealed the company has taken active steps to prevent Ukrainian forces from using the critical Starlink satellite technology with Ukrainian drones that are a key component of their fight against Russia.

There are things that we can do to limit their ability to do that, Gwynne Shotwell told reporters on Wednesday, referencing reports on Starlink and drone use. There are things that we can do, and have done.

Starlink was never meant to be used militarily in the way that it has, Shotwell argued, saying the company didnt foresee how profoundly and creatively Ukrainian forces would rely on the technology.

It was never intended to be weaponized, Shotwell told an audience at a space conference. However, Ukrainians have leveraged it in ways that were unintentional and not part of any agreement.

Shotwells admission that SpaceX, which was founded by Elon Musk, has prevented Ukrainian soldiers from fully using the technology confirms the long-standing belief that Musk and the company are uneasy with Ukraines military use of Starlink.

Speaking with reporters after, Shotwell argued that Starlink had sent units to Ukraine to keep the banks going, hospitals, keep families connected.

We know the military is using them for comms, and thats OK, Shotwell added. But our intent was never to have them use it for offensive purposes.

Last October, Musk angered Ukrainians, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, for proposing a peace plan on Twitter that argued Ukraine just give up efforts to reclaim Crimea and cede control of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

That same month, there were reports that the Starlink signal had been restricted and was not available past the front line as Ukrainian troops tried to advance, essentially hamstringing their efforts to retake territory from the Russians. Those reports of the outages fueled accusations that Musk was kowtowing to Russia.

That has affected every effort of the Ukrainians to push past that front, a person familiar with the outages told CNN in October. Starlink is the main way units on the battlefield have to communicate.

Ukrainian troops have roundly praised Starlink as a game-changing piece of satellite technology that has not only allowed them to maintain communications, but also better target Russian forces with artillery and drones.

After Musk received Ukrainian and global praise for quickly delivering Starlink capabilities to Ukraine, CNN obtained exclusive documents showing that SpaceX was trying to get the Pentagon to start paying for thousands of terminals, along with their expensive connectivity, for Ukraines military and intelligence services. Thousands of units had also quietly been purchased by third countries for Ukraine.

One senior defense official told CNN that SpaceX had the gall to look like heroes while having others pay so much.

Musk responded quickly to CNNs report, tweeting, The hell with itwell just keep funding Ukraine govt for free.

However, SpaceX and the Pentagon had continued discussions about a possible deal for military units, according to people familiar with the conversations. On Wednesday, Shotwell indicated at least part of those conversations had ended.

I was the one that asked the Pentagon to fund, this was not an Elon thing, Shotwell said on Wednesday. We stopped interacting with the Pentagon on the existing capability. They are not paying.

SpaceX had never envisioned that Starlink would be used in Ukraine the way it has been, Shotwell said, echoing coverage and accounts of Ukrainian troops ingenuity on the battlefield.
Honestly, she said, I dont even think we thought about it. You know, it could be used that way? We didnt think about it. I didnt think about it. Our Starlink team may have, I dont know. But weve learned pretty quickly."

I have mixed feelings about this

Can't outrightly say a company is bad because they don't want their tech being used for weapons

But there are plenty of other problems with that company so meh

Mr apartheid blood Emerald needs to pick a side, and go all on whichever one he chooses. And I dont want to hear any bullshit about how he cant afford to lose the Russian market, it isnt that large, or important.

If Ukraine can do it, can't Russians?

Starlink should be nationalized without compensation and Elon arrested.

pinky0926 posted...

I have mixed feelings about this

Can't outrightly say a company is bad because they don't want their tech being used for weapons

But there are plenty of other problems with that company so meh

I kind of feel even a child could figure out a country currently defending itself from eradication would use the satellites this way if given them though.

Unsuprised_Pika posted...

Starlink should be nationalized without compensation and Elon arrested.

Wha what?

Fuck Elon.

Cocytus posted...

Starlink was never meant to be used militarily in the way that it has, Shotwell argued, saying the company didnt foresee how profoundly and creatively Ukrainian forces would rely on the technology.

It was never intended to be weaponized, Shotwell told an audience at a space conference. However, Ukrainians have leveraged it in ways that were unintentional and not part of any agreement.

Pretty cut and dry to me

BignutzisBack posted...

Pretty cut and dry to me

What did they think they were going to do with it, send cat memes to each other?

A_Good_Boy posted...

What did they think they were going to do with it, send cat memes to each other?

I imagine they were thinking they would use it for comms to keep their country's infrastructure together, the actual point of the company lol. They took it beyond that so now they're getting cut off, like I said pretty cut and dry.

BignutzisBack posted...

I imagine they were thinking they would use it for comms to keep their country's infrastructure together, the actual point of the company lol. They took it beyond that so now they're getting cut off, like I said pretty cut and dry.

But they did that via a partnership with the pentagon to give to the Ukrainian military...

Did they think that both military branches were gonna just be sending cat memes to one another?

BignutzisBack posted...

I imagine they were thinking they would use it for comms to keep their country's infrastructure together, the actual point of the company lol. They took it beyond that so now they're getting cut off, like I said pretty cut and dry.

Do you genuinely think a country protecting itself from eradication and genocide of its people would just go "Aw shucks, guess we won't use this satellite system to defend ourselves! No way anyone in a war would ever think of that after all."

Funkydog posted...

Do you genuinely think a country protecting itself from eradication and genocide of its people would just go "Aw shucks, guess we won't use this satellite system to defend ourselves! No way anyone in a war would ever think of that after all."

Im p sure the user you are responding to has been suspended for shilling for russia in the past

TheGoldenEel posted...

Im p sure the user you are responding to has been suspended for shilling for russia in the past

What? I have never defended Russia's invasion of Ukraine nor been I anywhere near suspended due of a topic about them ever. That's a really childish thing to say on your part, if you disagree on the Starlink topic just say so but don't do a brutal_deluxe impersonation.

Mr. Bignutz is right. It's not surprising that a privately owned company would not want it's tech being used as an offensive military asset. It doesn't matter that Ukraine is on the right side of things. They had an agreement to use starlink for communications and they've pushed past what was agreed upon.

BignutzisBack posted...

What? I have never defended Russia's invasion of Ukraine nor been I anywhere near suspended due of a topic about them ever. That's a really childish thing to say on your part, if you disagree on the Starlink topic just say so but don't do a brutal_deluxe impersonation.

If not my bad, I must have confused you with someone else

i do think its some dumb shit to think a country defending itself from an invader should be cut off from a technology that is helping them, simply because it violates the companys terms of use

and especially because the company is run by someone who is blatantly pro-Russia

specialkid8 posted...

Mr. Bignutz is right. It's not surprising that a privately owned company would not want it's tech being used as an offensive military asset. It doesn't matter that Ukraine is on the right side of things. They had an agreement to use starlink for communications and they've pushed past what was agreed upon.

Again, a child could figure out this is what they'd be used for. If they gave them to a country at war and genuinely didn't expect them to use them to... defend themselves... then they are utter idiots.

if the agreement was to not use it offensively, then its fair that they are keeping them from doing that.

Funkydog posted...

Again, a child could figure out this is what they'd be used for. If they gave them to a country at war and genuinely didn't expect them to use them to... defend themselves... then they are utter idiots.

It's not about could it's about should. If people were giving donations to Ukraine for food and medical aid but it was being used to buy guns instead people would be upset. That's not why the aid was given. It's just like how countries limited artillery that was donated because they didn't want to give Ukraine stuff that had enough reach to directly attack Russia.

specialkid8 posted...

It's not about could it's about should. If people were giving donations to Ukraine for food and medical aid but it was being used to buy guns instead people would be upset. That's not why the aid was given. It's just like how countries limited artillery that was donated because they didn't want to give Ukraine stuff that had enough reach to directly attack Russia.

Everything Ukraine does is inherently to defend its people, as the defending nation

they limited artillery because they didnt want russia to respond with agression

pinky0926 posted...

Can't outrightly say a company is bad because they don't want their tech being used for weapons

This. They have a right to stay neutral.

powpow999 posted...

Wha what?

Elon is aiding Russia by limiting starlink at a crucial time. Its treasonous and immoral. Starlink should be seized and restored to full access for Ukraine or at least be otherwise compelled to provide no limits access until the Ukraine war is over.

Elon also should already be arrested regardless for myriad crimes he has commited.

And as mentioned before this was a no shit sherlock moment. No one intelligent would give access to such a tool in wartime and actually expect it to NOT be used as such and any agreements to not do so should be assumed to be a formality no one actually gives a fuck about.

"Please roll over and die so I can say I stayed neutral k thanks."

ScazarMeltex posted...

Dude got butthurt that everyone with half a brain pissed in his "peace plan".

USA did try it.
Ukraine didnt want to give up land, Russia wanted more land.

I think the line in the sand for spacex was starlink being used to guide unmanned vehicles. Not that I care but communications is a little different from actual use in a weapon. however obviously the communications would contribute to ukraines defence / death of russian invaders in a similar way to how implementation in a weapon would contribute to ukraine defence / death of russian invaders. to me it seems pointless to distinguish between communications and weapons use when in both circumstances its self defence

anyways, an acceptable path to take would be for ukraine to extradite elon and hold him accountable for sabotaging the ukraine defence

Foppe posted...

Ukraine didnt want to give up land, Russia wanted more land.

it wouldn't stop after 2 more areas given up. they wanted moldova and georgia too (all of it).

My mild understanding of the situation is that if Ukraine uses Starlink to drive drones laden with explosives directly into a target for military purposes, that makes Starlink into a missile guidance system which carries its own host of issues.

So it's easier to block Ukraine than be labeled and managed as something you're not

Unsuprised_Pika posted...

Its treasonous and immoral

I wasn't aware SpaceX was a Ukrainian company. Please look up the definition of "treason" next time you throw it around. Or keep looking like a clown, it's a free country I guess.

specialkid8 posted...

They had an agreement to use starlink for communications and they've pushed past what was agreed upon.

Fuck 'em.

DrizztLink posted...

Fuck 'em.

International agreements and standards on what constitutes proper, and improper, use of communications equipment must be respected. We don't want people to be able to control military drones from their phones. Both from a civilian and a military perspective.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

you can do better than this

For taking away something they were trying to utilise in Ukraine and will now result in more innocent deaths. If they were anti-war to the extent of not even wanting to support Ukraines self defence, they shouldnt have provided aid to begin with. Now, they have sabotaged ukraines plans.

Unsuprised_Pika posted...

Elon is aiding Russia by limiting starlink at a crucial time. Its treasonous and immoral. Starlink should be seized and restored to full access for Ukraine or at least be otherwise compelled to provide no limits access until the Ukraine war is over.

Elon also should already be arrested regardless for myriad crimes he has commited.

And as mentioned before this was a no shit sherlock moment. No one intelligent would give access to such a tool in wartime and actually expect it to NOT be used as such and any agreements to not do so should be assumed to be a formality no one actually gives a fuck about.

"Please roll over and die so I can say I stayed neutral k thanks."

You know words have actual meanings and just throwing them in a sentence doesn't make them true, right?...right???

Please read a book. Preferably the dictionary.

Kloe_Rinz posted...

For taking away something they were trying to utilise in Ukraine and will now result in more innocent deaths. If they were anti-war to the extent of not even wanting to support Ukraines self defence, they shouldnt have provided aid to begin with. Now, they have sabotaged ukraines plans.

Ukraine utilizing it in the manner that they are will result in Starlink getting in infinitely more trouble than benefit that providing assistance to Ukraine will ever mete out for Starlink.

It is a crappy situation but 100% the right course of action for Starlink