Starlink

Elon Musk’s SpaceX reportedly increased its Starlink connection fees fivefold for U.S. military drone operations during the Iran war, raising tensions with Pentagon officials over pricing disputes that highlight the growing leverage Musk’s company holds over critical defense infrastructure.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has filed a formal complaint with the FCC accusing Amazon of breaching its orbital debris mitigation plan by launching satellites at supposedly unauthorized altitudes, raising concerns over collision risks in low-Earth orbit.

Two NATO-nation intelligence services suspect Russia is developing a new anti-satellite weapon to target Elon Musk’s Starlink constellation with destructive orbiting clouds of shrapnel.

Portugal’s chief narcotics police officer, Artur Vaz, said on Monday that Latin American drug cartels are shipping huge amounts of cocaine to Europe, frequently using cheap “narco-subs” that have proven difficult for European coastal patrols to detect.

British judge sentenced five men for their roles in an arson attack in London that authorities say was masterminded by Russian intelligence.

Gigi Sohn, the failed Democratic FCC nominee who was considered too radical even by Democrats, is criticizing Trump administration reforms to the $42.5 billion BEAD broadband program while reportedly working with some Republican state officials to undermine changes that remove DEI mandates and opened the program to satellite internet providers.

Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, Starlink, suffered a massive network outage affecting subscribers worldwide on Thursday. SpaceX blamed the outage on the failure of “key internal software services that operate the core network.”

Reports on social media indicate that Elon Musk’s SpaceX is deploying Starlink Minis to first responder vehicles working the “catastrophic” flood that struck the Texas Hill Country region on Independence Day. The systems will enable first responders to communicate in areas where cellular and emergency radio service are disabled due to the storm damage.

Elon Musk turned on free Starlink access to Iranians on Saturday after the Iranian regime blocked Internet access to local residents to prevent them from reporting Israeli attacks or rising up against the government.

South Africa appears to have reversed its position on Elon Musk’s Starlink, targeting the company for alleged unauthorized access by users within the country, after appearing to invite Musk to invest there last week.

The South African government published a draft regulation Friday allowing foreign companies to meet a 30% quota of black ownership through “equivalents” such as investing in projects aimed at economic equality.

South Africa’s visiting delegation to the United States reportedly hopes to entice former South African Elon Musk to back a trade deal by offering him lower tariffs on Teslas in return for building charging stations.

Cuba is threatening the nation’s inhabitants with fines and other legal sanctions if they are caught using the “illegal” Starlink satellite service.

The latest SpaceX Starship rocket had a rough test flight on Thursday, breaking apart within nine minutes of its launch.

Elon Musk said his SpaceX company will provide free Starlink terminals to the Los Angeles areas affected by the raging and catastrophic wildfires. The satellite internet service will help restore communication in areas devastated by the ongoing fires.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket today from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, setting a new record for rocket reusability.

Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service has announced it will comply with a Brazilian Supreme Court order to block access to Musk’s social media platform X in Brazil.

Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, Starlink, has openly defied a Brazilian court order to block access to the social media platform X in the country, further escalating the ongoing dispute between the billionaire and Brazilian authorities.

Update: One of the authors of the original New York Times story upon which this article is based published a new piece insisting that porn addiction is not prevalent in the Amazon tribe he reported on.

The FCC has officially denied SpaceX’s Starlink $886 million in subsid for expanding broadband in rural areas, questioning Elon Musk’s ability to deliver the promised service.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starlink satellite internet service has successfully completed a rigorous nine-month testing period with the U.S. military in the Arctic. Passing the military trials opens the door to Pentagon contracts for the billionaire’s space company.

Elon Musk has said that Starlink will provide connectivity to “internationally recognized aid organizations” in the territory of Gaza, where communications have been cut amidst the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Amazon has launched the first test satellites for its proposed satellite internet service on Friday, as the company seeks to close the gap on Elon Musk’s Starlink, which is already offering global internet coverage.

SpaceX’s ambitious Starlink project has failed to meet Elon Musk’s initial projections for customer growth and revenue, raising questions about the viability of satellite internet in an increasingly competitive market. The company had about 1.5 million customers worldwide at the end of 2022 against a project of 20 million subscribers.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin took a moment to praise Elon Musk on Tuesday while attending the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

Elon Musk’s decision to not activate Starlink’s satellite communications during a critical moment in the Ukraine conflict has sparked a heated debate on the role of private tech companies in international affairs. Musk took to his X/Twitter platform to defend the decision by claiming, “If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”

In a recent article published by the New Yorker, Ronan Farrow outlines Elon Musk’s influence on the U.S. government and the Ukraine war through the use of his SpaceX Starlink internet hardware.

A Ukrainian plot to target a Russian naval vessel was reportedly abandoned after Elon Musk denied Starlink satellite internet access.

Amazon plans to launch up to 80 satellites per month as it aims to compete with satellite-powered internet connectivity services including SpaceX and OneWeb.

OceanGate, the maritime exploration company behind the submersible Titan, which went missing with five people aboard during a trip to the wreckage of the Titanic, fired its director of marine operations after he demanded safety tests of the vehicle before it took passengers to the bottom of the Ocean. The company is also facing questions about other safety decisions, like the submersible lacking a safety beacon.

A “virtue signaling” tweet from left-wing author Stephen King was met with fierce backlash after he suggested billionaire Elon Musk — who has already spent millions of dollars supplying Ukraine with thousands of Starlink internet terminals — donate more to help the war-torn country.

Elon Musk announced on Monday that his SpaceX company has deployed almost one hundred Starlink Internet broadband connections to Iran.