The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent a letter on Saturday to SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk demanding that U.S. troops stationed in Taiwan get access to SpaceX’s Starshield, a satellite communication network designed specifically for the military.

The letter, obtained by CNBC and first reported by Forbes, claimed that by not making Starshield available to U.S. military forces in Taiwan, SpaceX could violate its Pentagon contract, which requires “global access” to Starshield technology.

  • Crack0n7uesday@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    They do, it just not as fast or reliable. SpaceX put more into infrastructure whereas the Military just did bare minimum. Now that Starlink is so much better, it’s cheaper and more efficient to rent from them than to continue building their own.

      • Wrench@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        They’d have to seize spaceX too, which is the reason that starlink is viable in the first place due to reduced costs in launching satellites.

        And then if they do both, survive the brain drain while simultaneously surviving the onslaught of Republican attempts to defund it into oblivion, because that’s what they do.

        Yeah. I don’t like those chances, nor do I like Musk essentially having power over foreign relations. Kinda lose lose, which is why we’re in this shitty holding pattern atm.

      • Illuminostro@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        You know what would be the cherry on top? Seize all of Musk’s assets, and kick his ass out of the country. Along with the Murdochs.

      • Crack0n7uesday@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Do you really want to give the government the power to do that, and then hand that power over to the military… I don’t like Musk but I see so many worse scenarios with this being controlled by the military.

          • cole@lemdro.id
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            10 months ago

            This is crazy talk. Anybody can smuggle some terminals into their country. That doesn’t mean they’re being “helped”. The US government would come down on SpaceX with unprecedented force if they violated sanctions like that

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              It’s crazy talk? No. It’s reality. Elon shut down Starlink for the Ukraine military with the excuse that they would have started World War 3. Meaning he has the power to shut down Starlink for the Russians as well.

              • cole@lemdro.id
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                10 months ago

                I’d love to better understand your position. it seems like you think that Starlink is aware of who is using a terminal. how can Starlink differentiate between a Ukrainian and Russian user in the same general area? should Starlink randomly turn off user terminals it suspects? what if it accidentally turns off a Ukrainian one? billing is obv not a good indicator

                I want to understand your thoughts a little more clearly on this

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                  10 months ago

                  The area is Russian-occupied. Just turn off Starlink to that area. It’s not hard.

                  Yes, that sucks for anyone stuck there. But this is war. You don’t let the Russians have an advantage.

                  • cole@lemdro.id
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                    10 months ago

                    I don’t think that’s where the problem I’m raising is. Think about an active confrontation area where both sides have Starlink. How do you tell which to turn off in this case? Ideally Ukraine would be using starshield and then Starlink can be turned off entirely

              • PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works
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                10 months ago

                They didn’t have it on in that area and refused to turn it on when asked. They didn’t just shut down the sats.

        • TheChurn@kbin.social
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          10 months ago

          The government already has the power to do that.

          If shit ever hit the fan, they could just invoke the DPA and force starlink to do exactly what they say.

      • cole@lemdro.id
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        10 months ago

        that seems pretty stupid, should we also seize Amazon Kuiper when they start launching very soon?

      • PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        You can’t really put a real cost on seizing something like that. Not all of the costs will be up front or even obvious. People don’t like having their stit stolen, oddly enough.