Ukraine officials in direct negotiations with Musk about Starlink
According to the Ukraine’s defense minister, they are now conducting direct negotiations with Elon Musk concerning the cost of using SpaceX’s Starlink constellation as part of its war against Russia.
In an interview, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said “I know that we will not have a problem” keeping the service active, citing the “personal communication” between Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov and Musk.
Fedorov “is responsible for the digitalization and he has a direct connection with Elon Musk. They have a personal communication, and Mykhailo was really positive” about the situation in their last discussion of the issue, Reznikov said.
I suspect that at some point, the Ukraine will start paying SpaceX some money out of the $20 million per month Musk says it costs. And it will likely draw the cash for those payments from the approximately $50 billion the U.S. has sent it in aid.
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The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
According to the Ukraine’s defense minister, they are now conducting direct negotiations with Elon Musk concerning the cost of using SpaceX’s Starlink constellation as part of its war against Russia.
In an interview, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said “I know that we will not have a problem” keeping the service active, citing the “personal communication” between Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov and Musk.
Fedorov “is responsible for the digitalization and he has a direct connection with Elon Musk. They have a personal communication, and Mykhailo was really positive” about the situation in their last discussion of the issue, Reznikov said.
I suspect that at some point, the Ukraine will start paying SpaceX some money out of the $20 million per month Musk says it costs. And it will likely draw the cash for those payments from the approximately $50 billion the U.S. has sent it in aid.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Supposedly, the Biden administration is in talks with Musk about providing Starlink access to Iran’s citizenry, since that gov’t has shut down most internet access during the current uprising. If this is true, it’s a substantial turn from the anti-anything-Elon policies they’ve exhibited. How easily it could be implemented on the ground there, well that’s a hurdle.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/21/politics/white-house-musk-starlink-iran-protests-ukraine/index.html
The CNN article seems to imply without directly saying so that the US govt was involved in the provision of Starlink to Ukraine. I do not think this was the case.
The article also seems to indicate that the nuclear treaty with Iran is off the table. I am also skeptical of that, given the high priority that seems to have been given to undoing Trump’s cancellation of the treaty. But any support for Iranian rebels would certainly put paid to any treaty.
Both these developments seem to indicate a desperate White House desire to get in front of something seen as positive… something more substantial than a strawberry ice cream cone.
@Ray The implication is that US military helicopters and other logistical support was used to fly the receivers into a war zone as fedex was not available.
And yes the current administration really hates Elon.
I feel sorry for Musk. I really do. I do not believe he really had any kind of in depth clue as to what he was getting connected to when he made his initial Starlink Donation to Ukraine.
He really believes he was “doing a good deed”. And I agree with that. But in the end this fight is between the “Aggressors” and the “Aggrieved”, not good guys and bad guys.
In the long run the rolls of Aggressor and Aggrieved in that war could swap out at a moments notice. Then what of “good deeds”? Will it still be a “good deed” to enable Ukraine to out and out invade Russia, to make an all out assault on Moscow itself? I mean we in The West don’t reckon the geography over there much. It is less than 400 miles from Ukraine’s Northern Border to the outskirts of Moscow.
What does The West do, when their aid to Ukraine has not really raised Ukraine to such military heights but does indeed degrade Russian military and financial strength so much that the effect is the same?
NATO must wrestle with this question. Russia thus threatened will have no problem going to their nukes.
Now, one of our drones was spoofed by these guys.
Could it be that THEIR drones can use Starlink in some way?
I hope not..