SpaceX has been working for six weeks to bring the Starlink satellite internet service to Ukraine before an official request from government officials in the beleaguered country.
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell broke the news on Monday (March 7) at Caltech during a speech first reported by SpaceNews.
“We have been trying to get permission – landing rights – to host facilities in Ukraine,” Shotwell said, according to SpaceNews, saying the company is working on it in connection with a planned expansion of Starlink services in Europe and elsewhere. “We worked with the Ukrainians for a month and a half.”
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk promised to deliver Starlink at the end of February, after there was an official announcement due to the lack of communication in Ukraine. ask Musk in person for help on twitter.
That official was Mikhail Fedorov, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Digital Transformation of the country. Two days after his tweet, on February 28, he shared a photo on twitter lots of new Starlink terminals.
Connected: Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine and Space Strikes: Live Updates
Starlink is here. Thanks @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/dZbaYqWYCfFebruary 28, 2022
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Shotwell said the tweet allowed SpaceX to get “landing rights” because they didn’t have an official letter from Ukraine before Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24, prompting international condemnation.
“But then they tweeted,” Shotwell was quoted as saying by SpaceNews about Fedorov’s request on behalf of the Ukrainian government. Here is our resolution.
She noted that providing Starlink was, according to the company, “the right thing to do” because “the best way to support democracy is to make sure that we all understand what the truth is.”
Russia suspends services to its citizens on Twitter and other social networks (unless such people use a virtual private network to access information). The country also recently imposed wide-ranging sanctions against independent journalists covering the war, forcing many international bureaus to leave Russia or change reporting practices to protect the safety of journalists.
SpaceX joins an ever-growing list of companies and countries that are supporting Ukraine in the fight against the Russian invasion. Russia is under numerous economic sanctions affecting, among other things, the space industry.
For now, the International Space Station continues to operate as normal, according to NASA; Russia and the US are the main partners in the multinational coalition. Operation of the ISS has been approved until 2024, although the expected extension to 2030 seems difficult under the circumstances.
Numerous international partnerships with Russia in space have weakened or collapsed in the largest such change in the space industry since the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @spacedot.com or on Facebook.