Wild that Elon Musk may have prevented a nuclear strike. Not really sure what to make of this since I don’t trust anything he says.

  • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    39
    ·
    1 year ago

    This stuff is being written about like he’s wretched for doing it but as far as I know Starlink’s TOS specifically says it can’t be used for weapons (Checked, " Starlink is not designed or intended for use with or in offensive or defensive weaponry.") so this is just melon enforcing contract terms (lol) in order to prevent starlink from being targeted by Russia. Pretty sure the Russians could plink his low orbit satellites out of the sky if they decided they were a threat.

    • Shrike502@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Russians could plink his low orbit satellites out of the sky if they decided they were a threat.

      Technically - yes. Realistically - doubt it. Might constitute an attack on USA, and amusingly Kremlin is just sane enough to try and avoid that (unlike certain others)

      • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        1 year ago

        Oh yeah, shooting down Starlink satellites would be the worst case response. More likely Musk was worried about his companies being targeted by sanctions or bans if Starlink got sorted into the “military industrial complex” category

    • SimulatedLiberalism [none/use name]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      It seems pretty clear that Russia has already found ways to jam their satellite terminals (no need to even shoot down their satellites) so it’s just a face saving move than to say Starlink has been rendered completely useless for military purpose.