From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   Elon Musk’s Unmatched Power in the Stars   
   By Satariano, Reinhard, Metz, Frenkel & Khurana, July 28, 2023, NY Times   
   On March 17, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,   
   and Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the leader of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, dialed   
   into a call to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Over the secure line,   
   the two military leaders    
   conferred on air defense systems, real-time battlefield assessments and shared   
   intelligence on Russia’s military losses.   
      
   Zaluzhnyi raised the topic of Starlink, the satellite internet technology made   
   by Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, 3 people with knowledge of the   
   conversation said. Ukraine’s battlefield decisions depended on the continued   
   use of Starlink for    
   communications, Gen. Zaluzhnyi said, and his country wanted to ensure access   
   and discuss how to cover the cost of the service.   
      
   Zaluzhnyi also asked if the U.S. had an assessment of Musk, who has sprawling   
   business interests and murky politics — to which American officials gave no   
   answer.   
      
   Musk, who leads SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter, has become the most dominant player   
   in space as he has steadily amassed power over the strategically significant   
   field of satellite internet. Yet faced with little regulation and oversight,   
   his erratic and    
   personality-driven style has increasingly worried militaries and political   
   leaders around the world, with the tech billionaire sometimes wielding his   
   authority in unpredictable ways.   
      
   Since 2019, Musk has sent SpaceX rockets into space nearly every week that   
   deliver dozens of sofa-size satellites into orbit. The satellites communicate   
   with terminals on Earth, so they can beam high-speed internet to nearly every   
   corner of the planet.    
   Today, more than 4,500 Starlink satellites are in the skies, accounting for   
   more than 50% of all active satellites. They have already started changing the   
   complexion of the night sky, even before accounting Musk’s plans to have as   
   many as 42,000    
   satellites in orbit in the coming years.   
      
   The power of the technology, which has helped push the value of closely held   
   SpaceX to nearly $140 billion, is just beginning to be felt.   
      
   Starlink is often the only way to get internet access in war zones, remote   
   areas and places hit by natural disasters. It is used in Ukraine for   
   coordinating drone strikes and intelligence gathering. Activists in Iran and   
   Turkey have sought to use the    
   service as a hedge against government controls. The U.S. Defense Department is   
   a big Starlink customer, while other militaries, such as in Japan, are testing   
   the technology.   
      
   But Musk’s near total control of satellite internet has raised alarms.   
      
   A combustible personality, the 52-year-old’s allegiances are fuzzy. While   
   Musk is hailed as a genius innovator, he alone can decide to shut down   
   Starlink internet access for a customer or country, and he has the ability to   
   leverage sensitive    
   information that the service gathers. Such concerns have been heightened   
   because no companies or governments have come close to matching what he has   
   built.   
      
   In Ukraine, some fears have been realized. Musk has restricted Starlink access   
   multiple times during the war, people familiar with the situation said. At one   
   point, he denied the Ukrainian military’s request to turn on Starlink near   
   Crimea, the Russian-   
   controlled territory, affecting battlefield strategy. Last year, he publicly   
   floated a “peace plan” for the war that seemed aligned with Russian   
   interests.   
      
   At times, Musk has openly flaunted Starlink’s capabilities. “Between,   
   Tesla, Starlink & Twitter, I may have more real-time global economic data in   
   one head than anyone ever,” he tweeted in April.   
      
   Musk did not respond to requests for comment. SpaceX declined to comment.   
      
   Worried about over-dependence on Musk’s technology, Ukrainian officials have   
   talked with other satellite internet providers, though they acknowledged none   
   rival Starlink’s reach.   
      
   “Starlink is indeed the blood of our entire communication infrastructure   
   now,” Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s digital minister, said in an interview.   
      
   At least nine countries — including in Europe and the Middle East — have   
   also brought up Starlink with American officials over the past 18 months, with   
   some questioning Musk’s power over the technology, two U.S. intelligence   
   officials briefed on    
   the discussions said. Few nations will speak publicly about their concerns,   
   for fear of alienating Musk, said intelligence and cybersecurity officials   
   briefed on the conversations.   
      
   U.S. officials have said little publicly about Starlink as they balance   
   domestic and geopolitical priorities related to Musk, who has criticized Biden   
   but whose technology is unavoidable.   
      
   The federal government is one of SpaceX’s biggest customers, using its   
   rockets for NASA missions and launching military surveillance satellites.   
   Senior Pentagon officials have tried mediating issues involving Starlink,   
   particularly Ukraine, a person    
   familiar with the discussions said.   
      
   The Defense Dept confirmed it contracts with Starlink, but it declined to   
   elaborate, citing “the critical nature of these systems.”   
      
   Other governments are wary. Taiwan, which has an internet infrastructure that   
   could be vulnerable in the event of a Chinese invasion, is reluctant to use   
   the service partly because of Musk’s business links to China, Taiwanese and   
   American officials    
   said.   
      
   China has its own concerns. Musk said last year that Beijing sought assurances   
   that he would not turn Starlink on inside the country, where the internet is   
   controlled and censored by the state. In 2020, China registered with an   
   international body to    
   launch 13,000 internet satellites of its own.   
      
   The European Union, partly driven by misgivings about Starlink and Musk, also   
   earmarked 2.4 billion euros, or $2.6 billion, last year to build a satellite   
   constellation for civilian and military use.   
      
   “This is not just one company, but one person,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, a   
   cybersecurity expert who co-founded the Silverado Policy Accelerator think   
   tank and has advised governments on satellite internet. “You are completely   
   beholden to his whims    
   and desires.”   
      
   Reaching for the skies   
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