Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, stated on Friday that his company is now focusing on cyber defense and overcoming signal jamming of its Starlink internet satellites in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Musk said that SpaceX is prioritizing cyber security and avoiding signal jamming, with delays for Starship and Starlink expected. He predicts “slight delays” on the road to Starship’s first orbital test flight.
It is not the first time Starship has been delayed, with previous delays caused by an ever-shifting deadline for a programmatic environmental assessment (PEA) conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The estimated delay comes after Musk transferred SpaceX resources to aid Ukraine in its ongoing battle against the Russian invasion.
Musk was chastised for not helping Ukraine, so he shipped a cargo of Starlink terminals to the country. Later, the billionaire indicated that SpaceX would very probably become a target for Russian hackers due to this.
“Some Starlink terminals near conflict areas were being jammed for several hours at a time,” Musk posted on Saturday. “Our latest software update bypasses the jamming.”
Musk has been in touch with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy since delivering Starlink technology to Ukraine to assist the country in maintaining an internet connection in the middle of the crisis.
However, it’s open to question how Starlink’s anti-satellite attacks might lead Starship to be postponed. Is SpaceX asking aerospace experts to assist with cybersecurity? Or maybe it’s just a sound reason for Starship’s current postponement. Only time will tell!
Nonetheless, with Russia’s space agency spreading Putin’s outright lies while being downright aggressive to the US on Twitter, the war may have a greater influence on space development than initially assumed.