Elon Musk says Starlink network in Ukraine has not received U.S. funding
9:18 pm Tuesday, October 18th, 2022
(Reuters) – Billionaire Elon Musk said on Tuesday SpaceX’s Starlink services have not received any funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, a day after reports said The Pentagon is considering paying for Starlink satellite network in war-torn Ukraine.
SpaceX is losing approximately $20 million a month from unpaid service and costs related to security measures for cyberwar defense, but “we’ll keep doing it (sigh)”, Musk tweeted.
“No money from DoD, but several other countries, orgs & individuals are paying for ~11k/25k terminals,” Musk said.
Musk, the world’s richest person and chief executive of Tesla Inc, said SpaceX spends nearly $20 million a month for maintaining satellite services in Ukraine and that the company has spent about $80 million to enable and support and support Starlink there.
The Pentagon is considering paying for the service to Ukraine, Politico reported on Monday, citing two U.S. officials involved in the discussions.
(This story has been refiled to add dropped words at the end of the penultimate paragraph)
(Reporting by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler)
