After sending Starlink terminals to Ukraine, Musk sent more batches on Tuesday.
Elon Musk’s Starlink, a satellite internet service provider, received a record of app downloads on Sunday—mostly coming from Ukraine. According to Wall Street Journal, about 21,000 downloads were recorded across Apple’s App Store and Google Play.
The service became available in war-stricken Ukraine after its minister of digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, sent a tweet to Musk asking for access. “Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route,” Tesla’s CEO responded on Twitter just hours later.
High-speed connectivity
On Tuesday, SpaceX sent more stations. “A new batch of Starlink stations is already in Ukraine! Technology is our future. Today it helps Ukrainians! It helps the new good to defeat the old evil,” Fedorov posted. “Ukraine is the future! Thank you @elonmusk! Thank you @MorawieckiM [Mateusz MorawieckiThe Prime Minister of Poland]!” The first batch arrived on February 28.
A new batch of Starlink stations is already in Ukraine! Technology is our future. Today it helps Ukrainians! It helps the new good to defeat the old evil. Ukraine is the future! Thank you @elonmusk! Thank you @MorawieckiM! pic.twitter.com/4ZAfgxPW3S
— Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) March 15, 2022
Starlink uses advanced satellites in low orbit, enabling video calls, online gaming, streaming, and other high data rate activities. The SpaceX-operated service can also process “other high data activities that historically have not been possible with satellite internet.”
Given that the system acquires data from space, it’s less corruptible and prone to authoritarian control. However, this seems to be angering Russian officials. In a state television channel statement, director-general of Russia’s space agency Dmitry Rogozin said, “this is the West that we should never trust.”
Bypassing control
“When Russia implements its highest national interests on the territory of Ukraine, Elon Musk appears with his Starlink which was previously declared as purely civilian.”
Dmitry @Rogozin to Russia Today: “When Russia implements its highest national interests on the territory of Ukraine, @elonmusk appears with his Starlink which was previously declared as purely civilian. Here is this mud (мурло) opened himself…” https://t.co/8htcXn0Ymn
— Katya Pavlushchenko (@katlinegrey) March 2, 2022
Despite this, according to Lisa M. Kreiger of Stars and Stripes, the tech mogul who also co-founded PayPal launched an additional 48 satellites on Wednesday to support high-speed internet in Europe.
“It’s a game-changer because you now have a way of bypassing any centralized control over what citizens can receive,” senior research scholar for cyber policy and security at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, Herbert Lin, told Stripes.com. “Government censorship over the internet no longer works.”
Banner photo from @elonrmuskk on Instagram.
