Tech billionaire Elon Musk said on May 23 that he is testing SpaceX’s Starlink on his private jet.
“I am testing Starlink on the plane. Some polishing needed, but it’s working quite well,” Musk
wrote on Twitter. In a separate tweet on the same day, Musk
wrote, “Starlink does work on vehicles in motion, including planes, but not yet reliably.”
SpaceX, a private company owned by Musk, has over 2,300 working Starlink satellites orbiting in low-Earth orbit. The satellite broadband service provider has signed a few deals with airliners for in-flight Wi-Fi services, including Hawaiian Airlines and semi-private charter flight provider JSX.
Recently, SpaceX
rolled out its Starlink services for recreational vehicles and campers.
In another tweet on May 23, Musk
wrote that Starlink will soon be available in some African countries, without naming any specific nation. Currently, Starlink is
available in at least 32 countries around the world.
“Starlink will serve everywhere on Earth that we’re legally allowed to serve,” he added.
The viability of Starlink has geopolitical implications, none more evident than the role it has played in the ongoing war in Ukraine. Days after Russia’s invasion, Musk began shipping Starlink terminals to Ukraine to provide
internet to Ukrainians, after a plea for
help from Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s information minister.
On May 23, Fedorov said that Musk has provided over 12,000 Starlink terminals to Ukraine, in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum,
according to Bloomberg.
“All critical infrastructure uses Starlink, all structures that are needed for the state’s functioning use them,” Fedorov said. “We need to receive them constantly because they are one of the elements of the foundation of our fight and resilience.”
Starlink has played a crucial role for Ukraine to withstand Russia’s attacks. In April, a Ukrainian soldier identified as “Dima,” who was based in Dnipro, a city in eastern Ukraine,
told journalist David Patrikarakos that “Starlink is what changed the war in #Ukraine’s favor.”
“#Russia went out of its way to blow up all our comms. Now they can’t. Starlink works under Katyusha fire, under artillery fire. It even works in Mariupol,” the soldier added.
In March, an officer with Aerorozvidka, an air reconnaissance unit within Ukraine’s army,
told British news outlet The Times that drones needed to be connected to Starlink.
“If we use a drone with thermal vision at night, the drone must connect through Starlink to the artillery guy and create target acquisition,” the officer said.
China
The Chinese regime is alarmed by Starlink’s capabilities, as evident by an opinion article published by the official newspaper of the regime’s military, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Daily, on May 5. The article harshly criticized SpaceX and said it should be of concern that the company has become a “space juggernaut.”“Some experts said if SpaceX installs a few root servers in the space, it can make Starlink the second independent global Internet, which will pose a serious challenge to all countries in defending their cyberspace sovereignty and protecting their information security,” the article says.
Rick Fisher, a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, said the PLA Daily article showed that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sees Starlink as “a direct threat” to its rule,”
according to his op-ed published by The Epoch Times.
“It is the CCP that seeks hegemony in space by denying access to space resources to any country that may eventually seek to threaten the CCP’s hegemony on Earth,” Fisher added.
Beijing has already taken steps to build its own broadband constellation in the low-Earth orbit. In 2021, China’s State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission
gave approval to the creation of a company called China Satellite Network Group Co. to create and operate the planned constellation.
In March, China
launched six test communication satellites to low-Earth orbit. Three more test communication satellites were
launched in May.
Fisher suggested that Starlink could work for Taiwan, in the event of a Chinese invasion, just the way it has for Ukraine.
“Musk’s Starlink system is replacing Ukraine’s terrestrial internet and is being used to fight Russian invaders. So, too, could Taiwan harness Starlink to fight CCP invaders or sustain a post-invasion sovereignty,” Fisher said.
The communist regime in China sees Taiwan as a part of its territory to be united with the mainland, by force if necessary. However, the island has never been under CCP control and is a de facto independent entity with its own military, democratically-elected government, and constitution. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has fueled speculation that China could be emboldened and invade Taiwan.
