2023-09-08 07:20:00
An enigmatic revelation, which has as its background the war between Russia and Ukrainecame to light in a new biography of Elon Musk edited by Walter Isaacson. These pages suggest that the billionaire tycoon had deactivated the Starlink satellites near the coast of Crimea last year. to thwart a Ukrainian attack on the Russian fleetwith the purpose of avoiding what he considered a possible “mini Pearl Harbor”.
According to the news agency Ansa Latinawhich echoed the recent biographical revelations of the CEO of X and Tesla, with the satellites turned off, the kyiv underwater drones that were approaching the Russian ships were forced to move away towards the shore without suffering damage.
The billionaire’s request to Starlink engineers was due to his fears of an imminent nuclear catastrophe in case Moscow reacted.
The events are recounted in “Elon Musk”, the new biography edited by Walter Isaacson that will hit bookstores on September 12. The American chain CNN He accessed some excerpts that narrate the dilemma that the magnate would have faced in the face of the war.
Apparently, after the sudden deactivation of the satellites, the Ukrainian authorities They asked the billionaire to reestablish connections while the governments of the United States and European powers began to wonder about the issue of satellite payments for kyiv.
In this scenario crossed by uncertainties and international tension, they concluded that trusting Musk’s charity would have been too risky: for this reason, the Pentagon and the governments of the European Union covered the costs.
At the start of the Russian invasion in 2022, Musk agreed to supply Ukraine with millions of dollars worth of Starlink terminals, which ended up being crucial for kyiv’s troops.
But when the military began using them for attacks against Russia, Musk began to express doubts about it.
“Starlink was not intended to get involved in wars,” said Musk
“How did I end up in this war? Starlink was not meant to get involved in wars. It’s for people to watch Netflix, relax, and have online access to schools. I mean peaceful things, not drone attacks“Musk told Isaacson.
The dominance of space by Starlink, a private company valued at $180 billion, is of increasing concern to the world’s military and political leaders.
Under a allocation of more than 4,500 satellitesmore than half of the assets, Musk practically exercises a monopoly.
Indeed, Starlink often provides the only way to get Internet access in war zones and areas affected by natural disastersin addition to being essential in Ukraine and having helped activists in Iran and Turkey to evade their governments’ controls.
The United States Department of Defense is also a Starlink customer, as are many other militaries, including Japan, who are testing and evaluating Starlink technology, considered the most reliable.
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