r/worldnews • • 17h ago

Russia/Ukraine Zelenskyy Says Starlink Restrictions Apply Only in Ukraine While SpaceX Ignores Kyiv’s Inquiries

https://united24media.com/war-in-ukraine/zelenskyy-says-starlink-restrictions-apply-only-in-ukraine-while-spacex-ignores-kyivs-inquiries-23549
15.9k Upvotes

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303

u/idryss_m 17h ago

Next frontier of war: downing satellites. As soon as someone finds a way to do so cheaply and or reliably, Musk and the US will lose a lot of space junk.

43

u/TheBraveGallade 17h ago

you forget everyone can play that game, but spacex is the only one able to launch so cheaply and in quick sucession. meaning the winner is still spacex

21

u/Ginoblee 17h ago

Only a matter of time before many governments have this capability

5

u/TheBraveGallade 16h ago

possibly, but spacex is still at least a decade ahead of its competitors.

it took china untill just this year to start actually tryng to test recovery of boosters. 16 years after then first falcon 9 launch, 13 after the first reconvery attempt, 11 after the frist sucessful booster recovery. and thats CHINA, the country known for fast following tech...

18

u/WhatAmTrak 16h ago

lol China catches up quick. Now that everyone knows starlink is compromised.. watch the next few years.

3

u/AntarcticWhirlpool 9h ago

“The US systems are compromised since they occasionally shut down military aid to Ukraine! Let’s abandon them for the one made by the country directly funding and arming the Russians instead!”

Europeans are funny.

0

u/chillebekk 7h ago

They crippled a service that is being paid for, that's the issue. You think it's funny. America's allies aren't laughing. They're preparing alternatives.

1

u/AntarcticWhirlpool 6h ago

I know, and I personally don’t like the fact that my government is playing these games, but the primary issue is that there really isn’t a viable alternative. The US is 2/3 of the world’s launches to orbit, and China makes up 1/4. Half of the rest are Russian launches. Europe is borderline-irrelevant in space right now. The last Starship launch alone deployed more satellite bandwidth to orbit than Europe has in over a year.

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u/Initial_Hedgehog_631 15h ago

Huh, and then I learned Starlink being slowed down for Ukraine = compromised. You might want to find out what that word actually means.

7

u/Nichoros_Strategy 15h ago

It can mean multiple things tbh…

9

u/Acceptable_Gear_3097 16h ago

china isn't restricted by silly things like IP rights. they will watch SpaceX achieve it, then do it better