Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service, is poised to become a critical lifeline in areas of southern Appalachia devastated by Hurricane Helen.
The Biden administration has announced plans to deploy dozens of ground-based Starlink terminals that connect to satellites and provide internet service to remote areas. The company also said approximately 500 Starlink kits have been deployed by private individuals and organizations to support recovery efforts. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the company would waive costs in affected areas.
Connectivity comes as many communities remain disconnected from telephone and internet systems.
But with that connection came a less welcome element: politics.
Former President Donald Trump said Monday that he had directly discussed deploying Starlink to disaster areas with Musk, one of his most ardent and high-profile supporters. A Biden administration spokesperson was quick to respond, noting that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has already made Starlink deliveries.
The brief exchange came as the federal response has drawn some scrutiny, with questions surfacing about the federal government’s preparedness and deployment of FEMA resources ahead of the storm. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited the region on Wednesday.
Although Musk has not directly linked Starlink to criticism of recovery efforts, he seems comfortable linking internet satellite services to Trump, reposting the former president’s claim on X that he requested Starlink transmissions. And on Tuesday, it is necessary to add Starlink terminals to North Carolina, which Trump said he warned about.
“Since the Hurricane Helen disaster, SpaceX has been sending as many Starlink terminals as possible to help communities in need,” Musk wrote on Tuesday. “Earlier today, @realDonaldTrump alerted us to the growing number of people in North Carolina who need Starlink internet. We’ll be sending them devices right away.”
This is not the first time Musk has appeared to politicize his access to Starlink in a way that critics say undermines the Biden administration’s objectives.
Ukraine’s government, which has relied heavily on Starlink to protect itself from Russian aggression, criticized Musk last year over reports that he was trying to restrict its military’s access to Starlink. Musk expressed his views in a series of posts about X.
“The Starlink region in question was not activated. SpaceX did not deactivate anything,” Musk said in a response to a thread on X about Ukrainian claims made in the book on the conflict. Ta.
“There has been an urgent request from government authorities to activate Starlink to Sevastopol,” he added, referring to Crimea’s largest city, which is home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
“The clear intention is to sink a large portion of the Russian fleet at anchor,” Musk said. “Had I agreed to their request, SpaceX would clearly be complicit in a serious act of war and escalation of conflict.”
Before that, Musk called on the US government to take over funding for Ukraine’s use of the network, suggesting SpaceX would suffer huge financial losses from its deployment. In the end, the Pentagon agreed to purchase the terminal from Musk for use in Ukraine.
Mr. Musk has also been accused of undermining the ability of Taiwan and the U.S. military stationed there to access versions of the service.
In February, Musk received a letter from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party asking why U.S. troops in Taiwan cannot access StarShield, which experts describe as a military version of Starlink. SpaceX denied the House’s claims, with Musk saying it was in full compliance with its contract with the Pentagon.
According to a CNN report, SpaceX then claimed majority ownership of the Starlink-based venture requested by Taiwan, which Taiwan rejected as violating the law. Taiwanese officials have also questioned the influence of Mr. Musk’s trade ties with China, where his Tesla electric car company operates assembly plants where Mr. A factory is also being built.
“What happens if we rely on Starlink and Mr. Musk decides to cut jobs because of pressure from China because he is putting the Chinese market at risk?” A think tank funded by Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense. , Yixuo Tseng, a research fellow at the Defense Security Institute, told the Times. “We need to consider that.”
Washington’s longstanding push to privatize the U.S. space industry has deeply tied Musk’s organization to the U.S. government. NASA recently used SpaceX to transport two stranded astronauts aboard the International Space Station in a rendezvous currently scheduled for February.
In addition to Starlink and SpaceX, Musk also owns Tesla and X (formerly Twitter) and has bragged about the power he currently wields.
“Between Tesla, Starlink, and Twitter, I may have more real-time global economic data in my head than anyone ever,” Musk posted on X last year.