The Ukrainian Armed Forces set up Starlink satellite receivers to connect civilians in Independence Square following the withdrawal of the Russian army from Kherson to the east bank of the Dnieper River in Ukraine on November 13, 2022.
Metin Atkas | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Ukraine’s use of SpaceX’s satellite internet service remains a crucial but contentious part of the country’s fragile infrastructure as Russia’s invasion nears its one-year mark.
Comments from SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell last week reignited the debate over how the company’s Starlink hardware and services should be used in the Ukraine conflict – leading to CEO Elon Musk and high-profile former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly prompted to interfere.
Kelly on Saturday prompted Musk to “restore full functionality to your Starlink satellites.”
“Defending against a genocidal invasion is not an offensive ability. It’s about survival,” argued Kelly, whose twin brother Mark Kelly is a US Democratic Senator from Arizona.
In two replies on Sunday, Musk tweeted that “Starlink is Ukraine’s communications backbone,” before saying that SpaceX “will not facilitate an escalation of conflicts that could lead to WW3.”
“We have not exercised our right to take them down,” Musk said noted in a separate tweet.
The Twitter exchange comes after Shotwell said last week that the company was “really pleased to be able to provide connectivity to Ukraine and to help her in her fight for freedom,” but stressed that Starlink was “never meant to be.” was to be armed”.
“The Ukrainians used it in a way that was unintentional and not part of an agreement, so we at Starlink have to work on that,” Shotwell said while speaking at a space conference in Washington, DC on February 8.
In a roundtable discussion following her remarks, Shotwell said that Ukraine uses Starlink as a communications system “fine for the military.”
“But our intention was never to use them for offensive purposes,” Shotwell said.
In particular, she noted reports of Ukraine using Starlink “on drones.” Ukrainian soldiers have described using Starlink to connect drones and identify and destroy enemy targets, the Times of London reported in March 2022.
“I won’t go into detail; there are things we can do to limit their ability to do that… there are things we can do and have done,” Shotwell said.
SpaceX did not respond to CNBC’s request to clarify what those restrictions are or if they still exist. A company spokesman pointed to Starlink’s US Terms of Service, which describe changes to SpaceX equipment or service that would violate US export laws.
“Starlink is not designed or intended for use with or in offensive or defensive weapons or other similar end uses,” states Starlink’s U.S. Terms of Service.