Ukraine’s space-based communications infrastructure took a serious hit recently due to funding problems, according to media reports.
Ukraine has relied heavily on SpaceX’s Starlink satellite-internet constellation throughout the ongoing Russian invasion, which began in February. Starlink service is much harder for an adversary to knock out, after all, than coverage beamed from towers on the ground.
But it costs money to keep harnessing those Starlink signals, and the invasion has seriously depleted the Ukrainian government’s coffers. Indeed, 1,300 of the Starlink terminals used by the nation’s military went dark two weeks ago thanks to unpaid bills, CNN reported on Monday (opens in new tab) (Nov. 7).
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“The recent outage started on October 24 and was described by one person briefed on the situation as a ‘huge problem’ for Ukraine’s military,” CNN wrote. “The terminals had been disconnected, this person said, due to a lack of funding. ”
The 1,300 terminals were purchased from a British company in March, according to CNN. SpaceX was charging the Ukrainian government $2,500 per terminal per month, the outlet added, citing the above unnamed source.Â
That’s considerably more than the $110 per month that SpaceX charges “normal” Starlink customers but less than another specialty service, Starlink Maritime, which provides coverage to ships at sea for $5,000 per month.
Ukraine’s defense department saw the outage coming and attempted to prevent it, asking British military officials in early October if they could start footing the bill. But the British ultimately decided to steer its Ukraine aid in other directions, according to CNN.
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk recently said that there are about 25,000 Starlink terminals in Ukraine. It’s unclear how many of them are owned by the Ukrainian government, but it may well be a minority; in July, the nation’s commander in chief wrote a letter to Musk stating that just 4,000 terminals had been deployed by the military, according to CNN.
SpaceX has long been subsidizing the costs of Starlink service in Ukraine, according to Musk. Last month, for example, the billionaire tweeted (opens in new tab) that SpaceX is losing about $20 million per month on Starlink in Ukraine “due to unpaid service & costs related to enhanced security measures for cyberwar defense.”
In September, SpaceX asked the U.S. military to start footing some of that bill, CNN previously reported (opens in new tab). That apparently hasn’t happened, but talks to that effect are ongoing, CNN reported in Monday’s story, citing a senior Pentagon official.
“Negotiations are very much underway. Everyone in our building knows we’re going to pay them,” the official told CNN.Â
Mike Wall is the author of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab). Â
