Reporting with multiple sources says Musk went to the Whitehouse with a plan to limit the connectivity of Ukrainian drones to satellites. The connections worked on the drones full speed when the drones flew into the EU, but didn’t work in Ukraine, making it seem that the connectivity was intentionally slowed for Ukraine. Musk said the Whitehouse had the say not him. The slowdown happened right as Trump was pressuring Ukraine publicly.
Elon Musk owns space. Most things being put into space are being put there by Musk’s SpaceX. The United States country and government are dependent upon Musk to get into space and Europe is dependent on Musk for its space-facilitated defense. It’s great to have such a fantastic company in the US, but Musk controls too much and has too much power.
The US military may be heading to a point where if it needs a new weapon, or much more of a current one, and it is in the middle of a war, one business owner can say no for whatever reason and greatly weaken America’s ability to fight.
Satellites make helping an ally with intelligence much more powerful. China is helping Russia against Ukraine with satellite intelligence. The two authoritarian countries are working together to invade a democracy.
“Sometime in the next few years — no one knows exactly when — three NASA satellites, each one as heavy as an elephant, will go dark.
Already they are drifting, losing height bit by bit. They have been gazing down at the planet for over two decades, far longer than anyone expected, helping us forecast the weather, manage wildfires, monitor oil spills and more. But age is catching up to them, and soon they will send their last transmissions and begin their slow, final fall to Earth.
It’s a moment scientists are dreading.
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When the three orbiters — Terra, Aqua and Aura — are powered down, much of the data they’ve been collecting will end with them, and newer satellites won’t pick up all of the slack. Researchers will either have to rely on alternate sources that might not meet their exact needs or seek workarounds to allow their records to continue.
With some of the data these satellites gather, the situation is even worse: No other instruments will keep collecting it. In a few short years, the fine features they reveal about our world will become much fuzzier.
“Losing this irreplaceable data is simply tragic,” said Susan Solomon, an atmospheric chemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Just when the planet most needs for us to focus on understanding how we are affected by it, and how we are affecting it, we seem to be disastrously asleep at the wheel.”
The main area we’re losing eyes on is the stratosphere, the all-important home of the ozone layer.”