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SpaceX sent a letter to the Pentagon asking it to pay the tab to fund the aerospace giant Starlink Satellite Internet Service in Ukraine.
Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX said in an Oct. 7 tweet that Starlink in Ukraine had cost the company $80 million and would top $100 million by the end of the year. The letter, which was obtained and first reported by CNN, claims it would cost more than $120 million to fund Starlink in Ukraine for the rest of the year and could cost nearly $400 million to the next 12 months.
“SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but neither can it fund the existing system indefinitely *and* ship several thousand additional devices with data usage up to 100 times greater than typical households” , Musk wrote in a tweet on Friday. “It’s unreasonable.”
In addition to terminals, Musk stressed that SpaceX must create, launch, maintain and resupply satellites and ground stations, pay telecommunications companies for internet access through gateways and defend against cyberattacks and jamming.
“Burn is approaching $20 million a month,” he added.
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SpaceX has sent about 20,000 Starlink terminals to Ukraine so far.
Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh confirmed that the Department of Defense received the letter from SpaceX.
“We remain in communication with SpaceX on this and other matters,” Singh said.
The letter comes after Musk caused a firestorm on Twitter earlier this month, when he tweeted out a poll asking respondents to weigh in on a series of proposals to get Peace Ukraine-Russia.
The proposal included redoing the elections of the annexed regions under UN supervision, officially making Crimea part of Russia, ensuring that the water supply of Crimea and Ukraine remains neutral. About 59% of respondents voted no, while 40.9% of respondents voted yes.
Musk said such a scenario was “highly likely” to be the result of the Russian-Ukrainian war, noting it was “just a matter of how many people died before that.” He also argued that nuclear war was “a possible, albeit unlikely, outcome” of the conflict.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy released his own Twitter poll asking “which @elonmusk do you like the most?” with options including one supporting Ukraine and one supporting Russia.
Musk responded to the poll, writing, “I’m still very supportive of Ukraine, but I’m convinced that a massive escalation in war will do great harm to Ukraine and possibly the world.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Germany Andrij Melnyk responded to Musk’s poll, tweeting, “F— off is my very diplomatic response.”
“The only result is that now no Ukrainian will EVER buy your fucking Tesla bullshit,” he added in a separate tweet. “So good luck to you.”
On Friday, Musk said SpaceX was just following Melynk’s recommendation after the Pentagon letter surfaced.
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Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Friday that Musk had helped Ukraine “survive the most critical moments of the war” and that the country would find a solution to keep Starlink running.
“We expect the company to provide a stable connection until negotiations are completed,” Podolyak added.
“The Department continues to work with industry to explore solutions for the Ukrainian Armed Forces as they repel Russia’s brutal and unprovoked aggression,” said Pentagon Press Secretary Brigadier General Patrick Ryder. , at FOX Business.
SpaceX, which did not immediately return FOX Business’ request for comment, has launched more than 3,000 Starlink satellites to date. Starlink, which is available on all seven continents including Antarctica, has a global user base of over 400,000 subscribers.