Starlink, Ukraine and Musk’s Payment Request

Likely we are all aware of the latest?

If not: Elon Musk reverses course, says SpaceX will keep funding Ukraine Starlink service for free

Personally speaking I’m not a fan of Elon Musk. He is a weirdo in my opinion a weirdo that has always been tied to the US military industrial complex. My suspicion was the coverage took provided a smoke screen. Hubby and I had wondered if Russia had been successful in taking out some of these satellites and Musk was looking for compensation of some sorts?

SpaceX warned the Pentagon that it may stop funding the service in Ukraine unless the US military kicks in tens of millions of dollars per month, according to documents obtained by CNN.

The letter also requested that the Pentagon take over funding for Ukraine’s government and military use of Starlink, which SpaceX claims would cost more than $120 million for the rest of the year and could cost close to $400 million for the next 12 months

“SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely and send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households. This is unreasonable,”

There was a need for several thousand more terminals.

I’ll quote from the article linked below:

Just after the start of the war, Musk’s company granted access to Starlink for the Ukrainian authorities. However, in reality, 85 percent of the 20,000 terminals were funded from U.S., Polish, and British sources, as acknowledged by SpaceX in its communications with the Pentagon.

These governments have also financed around 30 percent of the internet connection costs for the terminals. The cost per unit averages around $4,500 per month. 

According to the Polish government, Poland bought 11,700 Starlink terminals, 5,000 of which were purchased by Polish fuel giant PKN Orlen. SpaceX promised to fund the operational costs of these Orlen-funded terminals. These figures indicate that Poland is the biggest provider of Starlink terminals to Ukraine, each costing $1500 to $2,500. SpaceX pays around 70 percent of the higher operational costs of internet connectivity. 

The Ukrainians are now asking SpaceX for an additional 6,200 terminals and around 500 new terminals every month to replace those which on average the Russians manage to destroy in that time.

The Ukrainians are now asking SpaceX for an additional 6,200 terminals and around 500 new terminals every month to replace those which on average the Russians manage to destroy in that time.

Poland has funded over half of the Starlink terminals for Ukraine

If Russia is able to destroy 500 terminals on average in a month this would become a costly endeavor for Musk’s ‘benevolent’ nature.