Tag: starlink

China’s star wars arms race with the West: Beijing scientists draw up list of ways to hunt and destroy Elon Musk’s armada of Starlink satellites amid mounting tensions with America

Chinese scientists are developing ways to destroy Elon Musk‘s Starlink satellite network, including laser strikes, custom-built satellites and supply chain sabotage.

They see the system as a growing threat to national security, especially because of its potential to be used by the US in a military confrontation and for spying. 

Starlink, which provides low-cost, high-speed internet through thousands of satellites, is now used in more than 140 countries.

Professors from China‘s National University of Defence Technology wrote: ‘As the United States integrates Starlink technology into military space assets to gain a strategic advantage over its adversaries, other countries increasingly perceive Starlink as a security threat in nuclear, space, and cyber domains.’

Though Starlink doesn’t operate in China, its satellites still fly over Chinese territory.

That’s enough to trigger alarm among military researchers, who have published dozens of papers on how to track and take down the network.

One study found Starlink could provide constant coverage of key locations like Beijing and Taiwan. 

Another highlighted weakness in the system’s supply chain. Some researchers suggested tailing Starlink satellites with Chinese ones, using corrosive substances to damage them or disrupting their solar panels.

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China Strikes Hard: Chinese Satellite Pulverizes Starlink With a 2-Watt Laser 36,000 KM From Earth

In a stunning leap forward for space technology, Chinese scientists have achieved an unprecedented breakthrough in satellite communication, using a laser as weak as a nightlight to outpace the speeds of Starlink. Operating from an altitude of 36,000 kilometers—more than 60 times higher than SpaceX’s Starlink network—this Chinese satellite has demonstrated a level of data transmission far superior to what Starlink can offer, pushing the boundaries of what many thought possible.

An Astonishing Achievement

At the heart of this success is a 2-watt laser, which was able to transmit data at an astounding 1 Gbps. This speed is five times faster than Starlink’s capabilities, which are limited to a few megabits per second despite operating at a lower altitude of around 550 kilometers. According to InterestingEngineering, the laser, though faint as a candle’s glow, managed to push data through Earth’s turbulent atmosphere, overcoming a challenge that has long plagued satellite communications: atmospheric turbulence.

The team behind this achievement, led by Professor Wu Jian from Peking University and Liu Chao from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, developed an innovative method to address the interference caused by atmospheric turbulence. Their solution, known as AO-MDR synergy, combines Adaptive Optics (AO) and Mode Diversity Reception (MDR) to sharpen and stabilize the laser signal, ensuring that even through highly turbulent conditions, the transmission remained clear and reliable.

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Musk says he is providing Iran with Starlink as regime restricts internet

Elon Musk signaled late Friday night that he is providing Iranians with Starlink satellite internet after conservative analyst Mark Levin asked him to turn the service on in Iran during Israel‘s conflict with the country.

“The beams are on,” Musk said in a response to Levin’s request on X.

Levin’s initial post argued that if Starlink is turned on in the country, “Musk can put the final nail in the coffin of the Iranian regime.” Starlink is Musk’s satellite internet service.

Iran restricted internet access for millions of people following Israel’s strike on the country. Internet usage in the country heavily declined after the restrictions were issued, according to the internet monitoring group Netblocks. There hasn’t been a complete block of traffic, however, as Levin’s post suggested.

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India Poised to Approve Starlink, Provided It Supports User Surveillance and Content Censorship

India’s Ministry of Communications has issued a memorandum that details the conditions under which the country’s authorities would approve licenses to Starlink and other Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) companies.

A set of rules required of these operators is interpreted in some reports as an obligation to agree to facilitate surveillance and censorship.

At the same time, it is acknowledged that most countries impose similar rules – but the memo and its provisions are above all framed as a test for Starlink owner, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and his commitment to free speech.

Starlink has shown interest in entering the Indian market and has service resale deals with two of the country’s largest telecommunications firms. But making those deals operational depends on being granted a license, with the memorandum now explaining the 29 conditions that companies must meet.

GMPCS operators will have to ensure security clearance for gateway/hub location in India, as well as that functionality such as lawful interception facility, monitoring/control facility of user terminals, data traffic routing, etc., are located in the country.

Unregistered terminals will be immediately disconnected, while those registered for one location and then moved will be locked.

“Rogue for malicious activities” terminals are to be blocked without delay.

During hostilities, those issued GMPCS licenses must be able to restrict or deny service either based on specific geo-locations or to individuals or groups of subscribers.

Another requirement is to set up special monitoring zones 50 kilometers within the land borders and the exclusive economic zone (200 nautical miles).

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Dem Rep. Eric Swalwell Vows Use of ‘Subpoena Power’ to Investigate Whether Elon Musk’s Starlink Rigged Election For Trump

Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell has stoked a conspiracy theory Elon Musk used his Starlink satellite network to rig the 2024 presidential election for Trump.

During an appearance with a left-wing podcaster, Swalwell was asked about the integrity of the previous election and the role that Starlink may have played.

The host remarked:

The enemies allegedly stole U.S. data. The leak came through Elon Musk’s Starlink. I mean, I’m sure you’ve heard people, based on all of this information that’s happened since then, wonder if 2024 was secure. But more importantly, Representative, about 2026 and 2028, can you talk about that a little bit? Do you have concerns?

Swalwell, who is best known for being honey-trapped by a Chinese spy named Fang Fang, responded:

Elon Musk has done nothing in the last five months to make me think that we shouldn’t ask questions about what the hell he was doing in 2024.

Maybe we gave him too much of the benefit of the doubt, you know, after the election, but the way that he’s conducted himself with DOGE, and the way that, you know, he’s exposed us to so many hackers outside.

The way that he’s taken data, you know, from Americans, from our records — whether it’s Social Security or health care records, the only way that we can understand, you know, what the hell Elon Musk has been doing is to be in the majority.

Swalwell added that being in the majority would give Democrats “subpoena power,” which he would use to investigate the spurious allegations.

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Elon Musk & SpaceX Are Helping US Intelligence Build The World’s Largest Spy Satellite Network

On Monday, former Texas Congressman Dr. Ron Paul told his audience on Twitter/X that due to an “internet outage in our area” he would not broadcast his daily live broadcast, The Ron Paul Liberty Report.

Elon Musk, the executive chairman and chief technology officer of Twitter, responded to Paul, stating, “You should get Starlink”. Finally, Paul asked, “That sounds like a great idea! How much does it cost?”

Starlink is what is known as a satellite internet constellation which is operated by Starlink Services, an international telecommunications company that is wholly owned by Musk’s aerospace company, SpaceX. Starlink satellites were first launched by SpaceX in 2019, and now reportedly provide internet access to people in more than 100 countries. They have become increasingly popular because of their ease of setup and relatively low cost.

The most recent numbers on Starlink satellites say the satellite constellation consists of more than 7,000 small satellites in low Earth orbit. SpaceX has plans for 12,000 satellites over the coming years. Starlink is said to have more than 4 million worldwide subscribers.

Ron Paul obviously knew what Starlink was, and he might even be aware that Starlink has been a vital part of SpaceX’s success. However, what Ron Paul and most of the general public might not know is that SpaceX has become a key partner of the U.S. military and intelligence apparatus, and is helping them build a massive surveillance grid.

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Starlink Election Fraud Claims Show Dems Are Not Immune to Conspiracy Theories

After the 2020 election, then-President Donald Trump and his allies floated numerous hypotheses to explain his loss. One theory, which came to be known as “Italygate,” posited that Italian military satellites had interfered with American voting machines and switched votes from Trump to Joe Biden. Though far-fetched, multiple government agents looked into it: Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller called U.S. officials in Rome to ask about the theory, and then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows emailed Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, asking him to investigate.

Like all of Trump’s other allegations about voter fraud in 2020, Italygate had no basis in reality. But just one election cycle later, on the opposite side of the aisle, a very similar conspiracy is taking shape.

“Swing states were able to use Starlink in order to tally up and to count ballot votes, or voting ballots, in their state,” claimed TikTok user Etheria77 in a video that was also cross-posted to X last week, where as of this writing it has more than 4.5 million views. (TikTok removed the original video.) Over the course of the nine-minute video, Etheria77 posits that Elon Musk sent Starlink satellite internet terminals to swing states for use with vote tabulation, a task the terminals are not equipped to perform.

“There [are] absolutely zero reasons as to why those systems were connected to the internet,” Etheria77 says. “[Voting] machines have absolutely no problem tallying up votes like they have done since the beginning of time.”

To be sure, one TikTok video filmed in the front seat of a car is hardly the same as a concerted effort encompassing the sitting president. But the allegation has spread so far and wide that multiple mainstream news outlets felt the need to address it.

As with Italygate, this theory is not based in fact. While Starlink terminals “were used by election officials in some states to improve internet connectivity at rural polling locations,” Alex Demas wrote at The Bulwark, “Starlink is not a tabulation system and was not used to count or transmit votes in the swing states.” Terminals were largely used at polling places that rely on steady internet connections to perform tasks like checking voters’ signatures and registration.

The Associated Press wrote in October that “with a few exceptions,” voting machines are not connected to the internet: “There are some jurisdictions in a few states that allow for ballot scanners in polling locations to transmit unofficial results, using a mobile private network, after voting has ended on Election Day and the memory cards containing the vote tallies have been removed.”

“It is not possible that Starlink was used to hack or change the outcome of the US presidential election,” David Becker of The Center for Election Innovation & Research told the AP.

“Our elections produce huge quantities of physical evidence. A satellite system like Starlink cannot steal that,” Pamela Smith of the nonprofit Verified Voting Foundation told Demas.

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Elon Musk, Matt Gaetz accuse FEMA of ‘seizing’ aid, stalling Starlink deliveries to Hurricane Helene victims

Outraged critics of the Federal Emergency Management Agency aired allegations Friday that Hurricane Helene relief workers are sitting idle without orders — and that those who are working are “seizing” aid deliveries and slow-walking distribution of Starlink satellite internet equipment.

The allegations were outlined by Elon Musk, the CEO of Starlink operator SpaceX, and by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), citing on-the-ground whistleblowers as the death toll topped 215 across six states, making the storm the deadliest in America since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“Just received this note from a SpaceX engineer helping on the ground in North Carolina. @FEMA is not merely failing to adequately help people in trouble, but is actively blocking citizens who try to help!” Musk wrote on X.

The note read: “Hey Elon, update here on site of Asheville, NC. We have powered up two large operating bases for choppers to deliver goods into hands. We’ve deployed 300+ starlinks [sic] and outpour is it has saved many lives. The big issue is FEMA is actively blocking shipments and seizing goods and services locally and locking them away to state they are their own.

“It’s very real and scary how much they have taken control to stop people helping. We are blocked now on the shipments of new starlinks [sic] coming in until we get an escort from the fire dept. [sic] but that may not be enough.”

Musk also posted a text message he claimed to have received telling him that federal officials were “about to shut down the Air space [sic] to ‘regulate’ the private choppers we are riding in to deliver Starlink and supplies.

“[We] handed out starlinks [sic] with her yesterday but FEMA then showed up and started blocking up,” the unidentified sender wrote. “The largest concern for us here is the FAA throttling flights for our choppers where they are requiring To/from information and mission now to deliver a discrete code.”

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Russian National Guard Destroys Ukraine’s Starlink Station in Chernigov Region Strike

A Starlink satellite communication station used by the armed forces of Ukraine militants in the Chernigov Region has been destroyed, the Russian National Guard said on Wednesday.

“The Russian Guards destroyed the Starlink satellite communication station used by the armed forces of Ukraine militants in the Chernigov region,” the statement read.

UAV operators carried out a targeted strike using a drone with incendiary ammunition, the National Guard said, adding that as a result of a direct hit, the stronghold of the Ukrainian nationalists caught fire, and then further complete burning out of the enemy’s territory and the Starlink satellite communication station.

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Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites could be eroding Earth’s magnetic field and slowly poisoning us all, ex-NASA scientist warns

An ex-NASA physicist warns cheap satellite ‘megaconstellations’ like Elon Musk‘s Starlink could disrupt Earth’s magnetosphere exposing all life to deadly cosmic rays.

Dr. Sierra Solter-Hunt’s new study draws on new estimates that Musk’s SpaceX is burning up over 2,755 lbs (1.3 tons) of wireless internet satellite debris into Earth’s atmosphere every hour — creating a metal layer of ‘conductive particulate’ in orbit.

‘I was very surprised,’ physicist Dr Solter-Hunt told DailyMail.com. ‘No one has given much research to the accumulation of metal dust from the space industry.’

There are 5,504 Starlink satellites now in orbit, as of the last estimate by astronomers this March, of which 5,442 are operational. But tens of thousands more are planned.

Particles from these satellites at the end of their lifecycle could ‘distort or trap the magnetic field’ that keeps Earth’s atmosphere from escaping, the physicist said, ‘with all of the highly-conductive metal trash that is all settling in one region.’

Although she notes it is an ‘extreme case,’ such a layer of charged metal dust could lead to ‘atmospheric stripping’ akin to the ancient fates of Mars and Mercury.

After working on NASA’s comet-catching Stardust spacecraft research team in 2012, Dr Solter-Hunt spent three years at the US Air Force Research Laboratory.

There she studied the electromagnetic behavior of plasma plumes in low-Earth orbit (LEO), the region of the upper-atmosphere where Starlink’s orbital network resides. She now consults on space weather’s impact on the aerospace industry. 

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