Elon Musk Says the US Government, Not SpaceX, Controls Starshield Limits

Image: Support Forces of Ukraine Command

Elon Musk says Starshield is owned and controlled by the US government, and that any limits on how it is used, including speed, are set by the US military and ultimately the President, not by SpaceX. Musk made the point in a post on Wednesday, drawing a clear line between Starshield and Starlink, which he described as SpaceX’s own commercial service, limited to civilian and defensive use.

The clarification came after Ukraine said overnight caps had been placed on military Starshield terminals moving faster than about 100 mph, which Tesla North reported this morning. Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Wednesday that connectivity for terminals moving at up to 160 km/h is being restored, and he is asking for the speed limit to be lifted entirely.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went further in an interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored, alleging that the restrictions cost lives because interceptor drones relying on Starlink stopped working. “So people were killed because not enough destroying, not enough interceptors, including interceptors with Starlink, which didn’t work, of course,” he said, according to The Independent. Musk’s post places the decision on Starshield limits with Washington rather than with SpaceX.

The distinction matters because Starlink has been one of Ukraine’s most important lifelines since the start of the full-scale invasion. Fedorov asked Musk for help on February 26, 2022, and Musk replied about 10 hours later that Starlink service was active in Ukraine, with the first terminals arriving on February 28. The service has kept hospitals, government offices, frontline units and ordinary families online through attacks on cell towers and the power grid.

SpaceX also carried a large share of the early cost. In October 2022 Musk said SpaceX’s out-of-pocket cost to enable and support Starlink in Ukraine was about $80 million and would exceed $100 million by the end of that year, and he later put the ongoing cost at nearly $20 million a month. Other governments, including Poland and the US, later funded many of the terminals now in use.

The Starshield answer also lines up with how Musk has described Starlink’s role for years. In September 2023, after a biography excerpt claimed he had switched off coverage near Crimea, Musk said SpaceX had not deactivated anything. He said the company had received an emergency request to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol to sink Russia’s fleet at anchor, and that agreeing would have made SpaceX “explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.” Earlier that year, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said military communications use was fine, but “our intent was never to have them use it for offensive purposes.” SpaceX’s government business has grown since, including a Starshield aviation deal, and Ukraine honored Musk with its Order of Freedom in August.

Does knowing the US military controls Starshield change how you see the speed cap?