AN END TO ELON'S GENEROSITY

[StanCrypt]

In order to keep Ukraine's military and populace connected, the richest man in the world turned on his company's satellite internet infrastructure there in February.
However, according to US media, the Tesla owner asked the Pentagon to fund the program in his place last month.
Musk tweeted on Friday that his space company, which creates the Starlink system, "is not attempting to recoup previous expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system permanently." Starlink uses a network of satellites to deliver high-speed internet. It has proven essential for the military of Ukraine as it battles to regain Ukrainian territory from Russia.

According to Mr. Musk, maintaining the program costs $20 million (£18 million) each month. Recently, he said that SpaceX has already paid $80 million to keep Ukraine online. He stated on Twitter that "in addition to terminals, we have to develop, launch, operate & replenish satellites & ground stations." We also had to protect ourselves from more difficult cyberattacks and jamming.

If Elon Musk decides he no longer want's to bear the cost of funding the Starlink system, will the pentagon step in and take over the funding or leave Ukraine to their faith?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63266142

[spectre71]

You hope it wouldn't be problem with all the billions headed that way...

[cabron]

With all the money going to Ukraine, $20M a month is not a huge sum for Ukraine to shoulder anymore.
There is a lot of efforts to be done to give the Ukrainians an internet access but Elon quickly managed it to provide. If he was just a regular investor who would want to get paid in providing internet access, this investor will be first battling with a political party before a satellite can be up and running.

But I think Elon is also brooding for his suggestion to put an end to this war with his peace negotiation plan cause the internet  users to go against him.

[DudeAtWork420]

You should be thankful to Elon for what he did. He was quick to react when Ukraine needed it most. He runs a business so it's obvious that he will not provide free service till the end of the war. He showed the world how effective and quality service his company can provide at any time in any situation. Though Elon had a marketing plan in his mind till the beginning his contribution still deserves some claps.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

~snip~

According to musk's  tweet

We gave Starlinks to Ukraine & lost $80M+ in doing so, while putting SpaceX & myself at serious risk of Russian cyberattack.

This was absolutely the greatest generosity he has shown to Ukrainians. The Pentagon should be able to take it up from where he stopped. I think the Pentagon is already in discussion according to this content.

[Kavelj22]

According to the statements of a Pentagon official today, Elon Musk has provided a service to the world and now he wants in return for that service. This statement reflects US reluctance to fund Starlink.

On the other hand, the situation is very embarrassing given the situation in Ukraine after the United States announced its unconditional support for it, so it is not good to abandon it with regard to the most vital component of its communications (the Internet).

Personally, I cannot consider Elon Musk to have abandoned Ukraine or the Starlink project with this step, but it is natural that he will not be able to fund the project indefinitely, especially if he does not make any significant profits from it.

[adzino]

SpaceX's starlink is a not a charity but a for profit organization. They can't keep on providing them with free services. The amount of donation Ukraine is receiving is I think enough for them to find an alternative way or buy the service from starlink. With Russia trying to sabotage the starlink satellites, it would become more expensive for them to maintain the network. Elon has done as much as he could and it's his decision if he wants to donate more or not. Likely the media is going to twist this against him since he wanted to make the Ukrain-Russia peace plan but most of them was against it.

[BADecker]

Is Russia buying time on Musk's system?     

[OgNasty]

Pretty crazy that the US government hates Elon so much that they wouldn’t subsidize Starlink for Ukraine. This just makes Elon look better in my opinion, as he was the bigger man even while Ukrainian politicians call him names and our own government won’t even mention his company’s name. I’m glad Elon is on the side of common sense. Seeing people hate on him really shows that it doesn’t matter how awesome and successful you are. Someone will always complain.

[Ultegra134]

Didn't Elon Musk cut Ukraine's satellite internet after Andrij Melnyk, a Ukrainian diplomat, told him to f*ck off after posting a tweet regarding a possible solution to end the war or at least release tension between Ukraine and Russia? While on the one hand, I understand that Ukraine doesn't want outsiders interfering in their war (ironic if you think that if it wasn't for the west, who knows how far Russia would have gone), Elon was just stating one very possible scenario. On the other hand, I find it completely unprofessional from the diplomat's side to respond in that way on public social media.

[PrimeNumber7]

Pretty crazy that the US government hates Elon so much that they wouldn’t subsidize Starlink for Ukraine. This just makes Elon look better in my opinion, as he was the bigger man even while Ukrainian politicians call him names and our own government won’t even mention his company’s name. I’m glad Elon is on the side of common sense. Seeing people hate on him really shows that it doesn’t matter how awesome and successful you are. Someone will always complain.

I think it is more the Biden administration and mainstream democrats that hate Musk.

Musk is very pro-freedom, and authoritarians do not like that. His buying Twitter, and promising to make it more transparent and more free-speech-focused isn't helping his cause.

Space X is not a charity, it is a for-profit business. With all the billions of dollars worth of military equipment going to Ukraine, paid for the US taxpayer, it is not unreasonable to expect the US government to help pay the bill for Starlink. They are paying for everything else.

[BADecker]

I wonder if the CIA kidnapped Elon for a day, and loaded him on a plane headed for Cuba, and waterboarded him until he finally realized who the boss is... and then turned around and brought him home all safe and sound. So, the Ukraine might be getting the use of the satellites again.

[sovie]

I wonder if the CIA kidnapped Elon for a day, and loaded him on a plane headed for Cuba, and waterboarded him until he finally realized who the boss is... and then turned around and brought him home all safe and sound. So, the Ukraine might be getting the use of the satellites again.

That is a strange plan though! But the ultimate power is the supreme power.
Everything is immortal one day Elon will be living a retired life and later everyone will be history

[OgNasty]

Pretty crazy that the US government hates Elon so much that they wouldn’t subsidize Starlink for Ukraine. This just makes Elon look better in my opinion, as he was the bigger man even while Ukrainian politicians call him names and our own government won’t even mention his company’s name. I’m glad Elon is on the side of common sense. Seeing people hate on him really shows that it doesn’t matter how awesome and successful you are. Someone will always complain.

I think it is more the Biden administration and mainstream democrats that hate Musk.

Musk is very pro-freedom, and authoritarians do not like that. His buying Twitter, and promising to make it more transparent and more free-speech-focused isn't helping his cause.

Space X is not a charity, it is a for-profit business. With all the billions of dollars worth of military equipment going to Ukraine, paid for the US taxpayer, it is not unreasonable to expect the US government to help pay the bill for Starlink. They are paying for everything else.

I agree that SpaceX isn't a charity and that Elon doesn't owe Ukraine anything.  It just goes to show that he's the bigger person when it comes to Elon and the US Government and that Elon is willing to dip into his pocket (and those of his investors I guess) to pay the $20,000,000 per month bill that servicing Ukraine is currently costing.  I'm sure at some point the DoD will pony up something so that they can say the helped pay the bill, but Elon has said he doesn't even care anymore.  He's fine paying the $20,000,000 per month to keep Ukraine connected to the internet during these turbulent times.

[PrimeNumber7]

Pretty crazy that the US government hates Elon so much that they wouldn’t subsidize Starlink for Ukraine. This just makes Elon look better in my opinion, as he was the bigger man even while Ukrainian politicians call him names and our own government won’t even mention his company’s name. I’m glad Elon is on the side of common sense. Seeing people hate on him really shows that it doesn’t matter how awesome and successful you are. Someone will always complain.

I think it is more the Biden administration and mainstream democrats that hate Musk.

Musk is very pro-freedom, and authoritarians do not like that. His buying Twitter, and promising to make it more transparent and more free-speech-focused isn't helping his cause.

Space X is not a charity, it is a for-profit business. With all the billions of dollars worth of military equipment going to Ukraine, paid for the US taxpayer, it is not unreasonable to expect the US government to help pay the bill for Starlink. They are paying for everything else.

I agree that SpaceX isn't a charity and that Elon doesn't owe Ukraine anything.  It just goes to show that he's the bigger person when it comes to Elon and the US Government and that Elon is willing to dip into his pocket (and those of his investors I guess) to pay the $20,000,000 per month bill that servicing Ukraine is currently costing.  I'm sure at some point the DoD will pony up something so that they can say the helped pay the bill, but Elon has said he doesn't even care anymore.  He's fine paying the $20,000,000 per month to keep Ukraine connected to the internet during these turbulent times.

I remember reading somewhere that Musk announced the stopping of SpaceX giving free internet services to Ukraine after critical comments by someone in the Biden administration. I don't remember where I saw this, so I am not sure its reliability. If true, the two events are likely related.

There is an argument that SpaceX was giving free internet access to Ukraine as a marketing gimmick. The news made headlines, and I am sure that many looked into using SpaceX internet service that had not previously done so. It is also possible that SpaceX was not generating enough additional paying customers for it to make sense for them to continue giving Ukraine free internet service.

[BADecker]

I wonder if the CIA kidnapped Elon for a day, and loaded him on a plane headed for Cuba, and waterboarded him until he finally realized who the boss is... and then turned around and brought him home all safe and sound. So, the Ukraine might be getting the use of the satellites again.

That is a strange plan though! But the ultimate power is the supreme power.
Everything is immortal one day Elon will be living a retired life and later everyone will be history

There are places on the Net where you can find the routes of airplanes that fly all over, and actually track them in flight. You can also see basically who they belong to.

It seems that there are reasonably regular flights of US government planes - CIA planes, in particular - that fly out of the US, and halfway to Cuba (in the direction of Guantanamo), and then turn around and come back. And, there are a few reports that the CIA has done exactly that... waterboarding on the planes.

The flights are real. The waterboarding? People can say anything.

[Zlantann]

You should be thankful to Elon for what he did. He was quick to react when Ukraine needed it most. He runs a business so it's obvious that he will not provide free service till the end of the war. He showed the world how effective and quality service his company can provide at any time in any situation. Though Elon had a marketing plan in his mind till the beginning his contribution still deserves some claps.

I thought he promised to fund the project till the war ends. Maybe he didn't believe that the war would be a very long one. Or he might not be pleased with Ukraine's response to his proposed peace deal.

Anyway, he has been very generous to the people of Ukraine and should be commended. But capitalism is mainly for profit making and capitalists don't give gifts. They give with the left hand and collect with the right one in hundred folds. Elon Musk is using the way to publicize his satellite project and also using the opportunity to build public acceptance by disguising himself as a philanthropist.

[coolcoinz]

I thought he promised to fund the project till the war ends. Maybe he didn't believe that the war would be a very long one. Or he might not be pleased with Ukraine's response to his proposed peace deal.

Anyway, he has been very generous to the people of Ukraine and should be commended. But capitalism is mainly for profit making and capitalists don't give gifts. They give with the left hand and collect with the right one in hundred folds. Elon Musk is using the way to publicize his satellite project and also using the opportunity to build public acceptance by disguising himself as a philanthropist.

With rich people it's all about PR. He was asked to provide Starlink and he did. I'm sure he discussed it with a few advisors beforehand.
He gave the units for free (PR) but expected the US government to pay the bills.

In a new development, Russians warned that they're planning to start shooting down Musk's satellites and other ones used to spy on Russian troops. The US of course warned them back.
I don't think they'll dare to do it. Much rather think of a way to hack them or damage them indirectly and blame it on accidents.

[sovie]

I thought he promised to fund the project till the war ends. Maybe he didn't believe that the war would be a very long one. Or he might not be pleased with Ukraine's response to his proposed peace deal.

Anyway, he has been very generous to the people of Ukraine and should be commended. But capitalism is mainly for profit making and capitalists don't give gifts. They give with the left hand and collect with the right one in hundred folds. Elon Musk is using the way to publicize his satellite project and also using the opportunity to build public acceptance by disguising himself as a philanthropist.

With rich people it's all about PR. He was asked to provide Starlink and he did. I'm sure he discussed it with a few advisors beforehand.
He gave the units for free (PR) but expected the US government to pay the bills.

In a new development, Russians warned that they're planning to start shooting down Musk's satellites and other ones used to spy on Russian troops. The US of course warned them back.
I don't think they'll dare to do it. Much rather think of a way to hack them or damage them indirectly and blame it on accidents.

Elon Musk has finally joined the Twitter headquarter and laid off the two top India employee.
Many people believe that Musk did the right thing by sending them home. I believe in one thing. even at what place you are - your job is an insecure thing. It a phone call away . you can be sent home anytime