SpaceX has been working to prevent the Ukrainian military from using its Starlink internet to control drones in its ongoing war with Russia, according to a statement from President Gwynne Shotwell on Wednesday at a Washington D.C. conference (via Reuters).
Ukraine has been using Starlink since Russia’s initial invasion of the country last year, though Shotwell said in the statement that the satellite internet was “never meant to be weaponized.”
“However, Ukrainians have leveraged it in ways that were unintentional and not part of any agreement,” Shotwell said at the conference. “There are things that we can do to limit their ability to do that. There are things that we can do, and have done.”
Shotwell did not detail the measures taken to prevent Ukraine’s military from using the satellite service for drone strikes, though she did add that the country’s use of Starlink for communications was acceptable.
In the original agreement SpaceX had with Ukraine, Shotwell said the service was meant for humanitarian purposes, including offering internet to families, banks and hospitals that were impacted by the Russian invasion.
“We know the military is using them for comms, and that’s ok,” Shotwell added. “But our intent was never to have them use it for offensive purposes.”
Shotwell added, “We didn’t think about it. I didn’t think about it. Our Starlink team may have, I don’t know. But we learned pretty quickly,” when asked if SpaceX had thought about Starlink being used for offensive purposes before being shipped out to Ukraine.
SpaceX Starlink recently launched in Iceland and Colombia. Yesterday, SpaceX performed its first static fire of 33 Raptor engines for its Starship booster.
SpaceX Asks Pentagon to Take Over Paying for Starlink in Ukraine: Report https://t.co/q5yEw1Ml9Y
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