Absolutely, Tesla and SpaceX were built on public subsidies and contracts.

Europe did as well. An astronomic price for internet service

The huge amount of money being paid for Ukraine to have Starlink/Starshield access contributed to SoaceX's ridiculous valuation

There isn't any alternative. It was either to take it from Musk or to struggle without communication and die.

In war, even a short lived advantage, is still an advantage.

They didn't become solely reliant on it, they still use fiber drones and other lower bandwidth rf alternatives.

They were smart in their application and have politicized the waiver starlink support very effectively.

Overall I believe they've done a fantastic job adapting to their available options. Semper Gumby.

The mistake was to use starlink for us government purposes, including allowing it organizing totally uncontrolled communications of the white house, who knows what classified info was shared this time with russia or the other dictators.

The second mistake was to give starlink/spacex any subsidies at all, a company claiming to be that big can easily stand on its own legs.

Another oops was the dismantling of the respected NASA in favor of spaceX to let it decide on anything spacefaring.

Yes, because even more satellites in lLEO is exactly what humanity needs right now, we still. Don't have enough pollution and Kessler was just a pussy, right?

That's harsh towards South Africa.

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