The Starlink satellite system from SpaceX has once again been threatened with destruction by a foreign government – the Russian Federation has veiledly threatened Elon Musk’s company.
A statement towards Starlink last week was made by a member of the Russian delegation, Konstantin Vorontsov, during a meeting of the United Nations working group on space threat reduction.
Vorontsov stressed that Russia notes “an extremely dangerous trend that goes beyond the harmless use of space technology and became apparent during the events in Ukraine. Namely, the United States and its allies use elements of civilian, including commercial, infrastructure in outer space for military purposes.”
The representative of the Russian Federation did not mention the name “Starlink”, but there is no doubt that these satellites were in question.
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“It seems that our colleagues do not understand that such actions actually represent indirect participation in military conflicts. Quasi-civil infrastructure can become a legitimate target for retribution. At the very least, this provocative use of civilian satellites is dubious under the Outer Space Treaty, which provides for the exclusively peaceful use of outer space and should be strongly condemned by the international community,” Vorontsov added.
The SpaceX CEO responded to the threat with a tweet emphasizing that Starlink is for civilian use only.
Starlink is meant for peaceful use only
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 17, 2022
Since February, Elon Musk has repeatedly encountered negative statements from the Russian Federation, actively participating in skirmishes with representatives of the aggressor country on Twitter. So, the decision of Russia to withdraw from the partnership on the ISS, Musk welcomed the message “Happy journey” .
Bon voyage
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 26, 2022
Since February, Musk’s company has sent batches of Starlink terminals to Ukraine, which helped provide communications in cities blocked by the occupiers. SpaceX has delivered more than 12,000 Starlink terminals to the country, which now have over 150,000 daily active users.
In November 2021, while testing its anti-satellite missile, Russia destroyed one of its old satellites. These actions drew international condemnation for the huge amount of debris that the Starlink satellites were forced to avoid.
Elon Musk later noted in one of his interviews that SpaceX can launch satellites faster than Russia shoots them down.
Rogozin from Roscosmos threatened Elon Musk because of the transfer of Starlink stations to Ukraine – the answer was not long in coming?
Source: techspot
