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Pentagon: SpaceX effectively blocking Russian illegal use of Starlink

According to one Pentagon official, SpaceX has effectively blocked Russia’s illegal use of captured or illegally purchased Starlink terminals.

Plumb declined to elaborate on what tactics, techniques or procedures are being used to stem Russia’s use of the highly portable communications terminals that connect to SpaceX’s fleet of low-orbiting satellites. Ukrainian government officials had no immediate comment.

Starlink terminals continue to be advertised for sale in Russia on platforms such as e-commerce site Ozon. Their sellers say they function through subscriptions taken out in the name of residents of European countries where the technology is licensed, and they say that connections work — not within Russia’s heartlands but near border regions such as Ukraine’s occupied territories.

This week, however, users complained of unprecedented connectivity issues. On the messaging app Telegram one of the sellers recommended transferring onto a more expensive global service plan. Bloomberg hasn’t been able to independently verify whether those workarounds restore connectivity for illicit Starlink use in Russia.

The official tried to make it sound as if the Pentagon was an equal partner with SpaceX in accomplishing this work, but that’s absurd. The military is without doubt helping SpaceX anyway it can, but the bulk of the technical work is almost certainly being done by SpaceX.

Genesis cover

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 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

3 comments

  • As Wayne would say, tangentially related:

    “Just one more example of the freeing power of Socialism, DEI and the radical “progressive” “Equity” agenda. (sarcasm)”

    https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/big-balls-high-tech

  • Col Beausabre0

    They are broadcasting Bidumb’s “speeches” to any user in Russia

  • Jeff Wright

    Where the USAF is getting in the way of Starship—I wonder if any Soviet liquid-fueled SLBM tricks might actually aid Starship.

    https://nuke.fas.org/guide/russia/slbm/overview.htm

    I was thinking that a stretch Starship might have thin tubes of hypergolics to stiffen things and to spice up the hot gas thrusters.

    I think Russians put some oxidizer in fuel tanks and vice versa…maybe nitric acid into methane with LOX afterburners…chemical ignition.

    For all liquid SLBMs to work they had to get creative with the plumbing, yes?

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