Elon Musk says he cannot fund Starlink in Ukraine indefinitely, after reports he asked US government to help
- World’s richest man said the operation has cost SpaceX US$80 million and is projected to exceed US$100 million by the end of the year
- But reports said about 85 per cent of first 20,000 terminals in Ukraine were paid at least in part by countries such as the US and Poland
Elon Musk said Friday his company SpaceX wouldn’t be able to fund the Starlink satellite internet network over Ukraine indefinitely, amid reports he had asked the US military to cover the costs.
The move comes as Musk has been embroiled in public spats with Ukranian leaders who were angered by his controversial proposals for de-escalating the conflict, which included acknowledging Russian sovereignty over Crimea.
Starlink, a constellation of over 3,000 small satellites in low Earth orbit, has been vital to Ukraine’s war effort against Russia, with SpaceX donating some 25,000 ground terminals, according to an updated figure given by Musk last week.
In a series of tweets, the world’s richest man appeared to confirm a report by CNN saying he had written to the Pentagon warning that his financial contributions would come to an end, and that they would need to foot the bill.
“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”, he tweeted. “This is unreasonable”.
Musk said the operation has already cost SpaceX US$80 million and is projected to exceed US$100 million by the end of the year.