Starshield speed cuts leave Ukraine drones blind, killing two

Ukrainian interceptor drones lost connection with Starshield terminals last week, grounding units that counter Russian bomb-carrying aircraft. The failure allowed Russian forces to target the country's energy infrastructure. The episode resulted in two deaths and at least 17 injuries.

The military version of SpaceX's Starlink was throttled so terminals moving above specific speeds could no longer access the network. The Ukrainian military stated it received no advance notice of the change. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the move a direct message from the United States as tensions rise between his government and President Donald Trump.

Public criticism focused on Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Musk initially stated SpaceX has no control over Starshield and that the U.S. military makes such decisions. The White House denied taking action. Later reports indicated Musk proposed the slowdown to Trump, who accepted it. Other accounts said Musk ordered the restrictions directly. Access has since been restored in Ukraine.

Ukraine depends on U.S. technology for defense, including Starlink and Starshield. Access has been limited before. In 2022, coverage was not extended to support a counterattack in Crimea. The current episode highlights how much geopolitical power sits with a single unelected executive because the space industry is concentrated in one company.

Wendy Whitman Cobb of the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies at Maxwell Air Force Base said SpaceX effectively has a monopoly on launch. She noted that rivals such as United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin and Rocket Lab exist but none matches SpaceX in frequency, mass, scale or cost. Space economist Oğuz Karasu of the Oxford Space Initiative described the monopoly as practical rather than legal.

Karasu said launch represents about 8 percent of the space industry, but the rest cannot function without it. SpaceX built a network of more than 10,000 Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit using Falcon 9 rockets. Andrew Reddie of the University of California, Berkeley, called the situation almost an antitrust issue because SpaceX launches support constellations it owns, leaving little incentive to launch competing ones.

SpaceX has launched some Amazon Kuiper satellites, now known as Leo. Whitman Cobb and Karasu said they have heard complaints that Falcon 9 prices are rising, particularly for low Earth orbit. Starlink prices have climbed since its 2020 beta.

Experts noted that the stakes reach daily life through GPS and satellite communications. Whitman Cobb said a GPS outage could affect fuel pumps, ATMs, financial transactions and ambulance dispatch. Karasu said giving one person so much control is not good for society's future.

NASA and the Space Force face exposure as well. SpaceX is reportedly retiring the Falcon 9 and taking no new missions from 2028. The Space Force is struggling to find launch options for military satellites. This raises questions about NASA's future access to the Crew Dragon capsule. A Falcon 9 issue in February briefly grounded the rocket and raised concerns about the Crew-12 launch.

NASA continues to back Boeing's Starliner and contract with Rocket Lab and Blue Origin. Michele Scataglini of the Oxford Space Initiative said the market needs more competition, otherwise it is not a market. Reddie said the central security problem is that a non-state actor is making decisions as if it were a government. Scataglini warned that one firm could decide which countries get access to space. Whitman Cobb said the events will raise awareness of the risks of reliance on a single company.