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Welp, Starship is delayed yet again.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Friday that there would be “slight delays” ahead for the company’s experimental Mars-bound spacecraft. To blame, the billionaire said, was SpaceX having to dedicated more resources to fighting escalating cyber attacks on Starlink satellites by Russia after the space company sent Ukraine a shipment of its internet terminals.

Starship’s first launch has been delayed numerous times now, with much of it due to pending regulatory approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). However, this latest instance comes amidst a time of geopolitical turmoil caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Musk and SpaceX sent Starlink terminals to Ukraine at the request of a government official after internet service was disrupted across the country by the Russian invasion. A shipment of Starlink ground terminals, which use an antenna and terminal to access the satellite broadband service, arrived in Ukraine by Monday Feb. 28). With the terminals in use, SpaceX is working to keep them online, Musk said.

“Some Starlink terminals near conflict areas were being jammed for several hours at a time,” Musk wrote in a Twitter statement Friday (March 1). “Our latest software update bypasses the jamming.”

I wonder how many of the satellites are damaged?


Starship and Starlink V2 progress will be delayed, Musk said.

Elon Musk’s Starlink internet project continues to move forward, launch by launch.

SpaceX launched another 47 internet-beaming satellites from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday morning.

Nine minutes after launch, the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage that lifted the Starlink satellites returned to the planet, making a perfect landing on the *Just Read the Instructions* drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

## SpaceX launches 47 more Starlink satellites after supplying Ukraine with terminals.

The event marked the 11th successful landing for this specific Falcon 9 booster, tying it for the record of most flights with another Falcon 9 in the SpaceX fleet. In the past, the booster that lifted today’s payload has taken the Transporter 2 into space (June 2021), the Turksat 5A (January 2021), and launched the GPS III SV03 mission (June 2020) — in addition to seven other earlier Starlink payloads, according to SpaceX officials on the live stream of the launch.

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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is warning users in Ukraine who have received one of the company’s Starlink dishes that the connection could be targeted by Russian state actors.

“Important warning: Starlink is the only non-Russian communications system still working in some parts of Ukraine, so probability of being targeted is high,” Musk tweeted on Thursday.

“Please use with caution,” he added.

Tesla’s Fremont Factory could have its production capacity increased, according to CEO Elon Musk. Tesla is “considering expanding [Fremont] significantly,” Musk said in a Tweet last night.

Following Musk’s heavily publicized jab at President Joe Biden on Tuesday night for not mentioning Tesla in the State of the Union Speech with the likes of Ford and GM, who received Biden’s praise for electric vehicle projects resulting in employment opportunities. While Biden commended Ford for $11 billion invested and 11,000 new jobs and GM for $7 billion and 4,000 new employment opportunities in Michigan, Musk hit back with a valid point.

“Tesla has created over 50,000 US jobs building electric vehicles & is investing more than double GM + Ford combined,” he said, alerting “the person running this account” to give Tesla more credit.

Russia’s attacks on Ukraine continue to take lives and destroy infrastructure as the country invades. This infrastructure damage has disrupted internet access in Ukraine, leading a government official to publicly request Starlink satellite internet access for the country from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Musk obliged, activating Starlink service in Ukraine and sending additional hardware. But with continued attacks on infrastructure, how will Ukraine stay connected?

Fedorov brings up an important point: Even though Starlink operates without the need for traditional internet infrastructure, the Earth-bound hardware still needs power. And, as Russian attacks bombard the country, Ukraine’s internet access will continue to be threatened.

Fedorov’s statement publicly reached out for help acquiring generators to keep Starlink online for Ukrainians. But Musk responded with an alternative suggestion.

“Solar panels + battery pack better than generator, as no heat signature or smoke & doesn’t run out of fuel,” Musk wrote in response on Twitter.

Elon Musk has some ideas.