ANALYSIS – Elon Musk has been in the news quite a bit recently, not least of which for his purchase of Twitter and his firing of the leftist social media giant's two top executives. (RELATED: Senate Democrats Contemplate Bringing Elon Musk to Washington)
But there is a far more dangerous reason he is in the news – his company's far-reaching global satellite constellation called Starlink.
I recently wrote about how Communist China is studying how to use a multi-megaton nuclear detonation in near-earth orbit to destroy or disable Starlink.
This would reportedly create a radioactive “debris cloud” that could “cause failures of spacecraft moving in it, such as satellites, or even cause direct damage that can lead to destruction.”
China's military has also noted its serious concerns:
“The Starlink project has decided to increase the planned 12,000 satellites to 42,000, underscoring that it is widely distributed, flexible, and could be reconfigured quickly,” according to a People's Liberation Army (PLA) publication just last week.
“The ambition to militarize Starlink and its barbaric expansion,” it added, “deserve high alert from the international community.”
But Russia is also threatening to attack Musk's satellites. (RELATED: Russia and China Deepen Complicated Relationship)
His SpaceX Starlink satellite internet service has helped Ukrainians stay connected after Vladimir Putin's unprovoked February invasion.
As the Washington Examiner explains:
Russian forces tried to disable Ukrainian internet services at the outset of the campaign to overthrow Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but the attempt failed in part because SpaceX founder Elon Musk made his Starlink network available to Ukraine. The consequent superiority of Ukrainian communications methods during the war has helped Ukrainian forces to repel the Russian assault and launch their own counter-offensive to liberate occupied territory — a display of technological prowess that alarms officials in both Moscow and Beijing.
And the satellite network is getting bigger every day.
The Washington Post notes:
On Thursday evening, SpaceX launched yet another of its Falcon 9 rockets to space, the 49th in 2022, a record as it continues to launch a rocket about once every six days. This one carried 53 Starlink satellites to orbit, adding to a constellation that now has more than 3,000 in operation — more satellites than the rest of the world combined, according to analysts.
On Tuesday, SpaceX is scheduled to launch a much more powerful rocket, the Falcon Heavy. This time, the customer is the U.S. Space Force and the payload is strictly classified.
And this is worrying both China and Russia. China because of its plans to invade Taiwan, and Russia because of its war in Ukraine.
Earlier, reported the Washington Examiner:
Russia and China led a seven-member bloc of countries in dismissing an American call for a ban on the testing of anti-satellite weapons, on the grounds that such a pledge would be “insufficient to guarantee exclusively peaceful activities in outer space.”
So, they both continue to test and field anti-satellite technologies and platforms.
And the New York Post reported why Moscow is hopping mad at Musk:
Moscow in August accused the US of direct involvement in the war after Vadym Skibitsky, Ukraine's deputy head of military intelligence, boasted to Britain's Telegraph newspaper that Kyiv was using US-supplied HIMARS launchers based on what he called excellent satellite imagery and real-time information.
Satellite images of the conflict zone captured by commercial US satellite firms are pored over daily on Twitter by open-source intelligence experts who highlight the coordinates of potential Russian military vulnerabilities.
And now, The Express reports that: Konstantin Vorontsov, a senior Russian foreign ministry official, told the United Nations First Committee that the use of Western satellites to aid Ukraine's war effort was “provocative,” and is “an extremely dangerous trend.”
Vorontsov added: “We are talking about the involvement of components of civilian space infrastructure, including commercial, by the United States and its allies in armed conflicts.”
And warned that: “Quasi-civilian infrastructure may be a legitimate target for a retaliatory strike.”
The Express continued:
Russia could blast Western satellites being used to help Ukraine's war effort, a senior Kremlin official has warned – raising the prospect of spiralling escalation of the conflict. And while there was no mention of specific companies or individuals, the apparent threat may be aimed at Elon Musk, given earlier this month the billionaire pledged that his rocket company SpaceX would continue to fund its Starlink internet service in the country.
Russia has highly advanced kinetic and non-kinetic means to disrupt our satellites and has repeatedly tried (unsuccessfully so far) to jam the Starlink system.
Last year Russia fired an anti-satellite missile that destroyed a dead satellite to demonstrate its ability to target sensitive spacecraft.
Joe Biden's White House has responded with a boilerplate statement. As The Washington Post reports:
Asked about the threat, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday reiterated earlier comments from her counterpart at the Pentagon and said that “any attack on U.S. infrastructure will be met with a response, as you've heard from my colleague, in a time and manner of our choosing. And that still stands. We will pursue all means to explore, deter and hold Russia accountable for any such attacks. Clearly, I'm not going to lay them down here … in public. But we have made ourselves very clear.”
Will Team Biden's low-key warnings over attacking U.S. commercial satellites deter Putin? Only time will tell. But we may find out sooner rather than later. ALD
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Space-based antimissile defense.