we should probably invest in making sure people have affordable housing, food, and healthcare before worrying about militarising space.
this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
1082 points (91.3% liked)
Technology
71537 readers
6166 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Yeah I mean the tax payers have literally already paid for all of both SpaceX and Starlink. The public paid for it, the public should own it.
They're just following in the footsteps of Comcast. The FCC gave SpaceX/Starlink $885.5 million to provide rural broadband after they gave Comcast over $1 billion less than 5 years ago to do the same thing. Starlink actually works out there from what I understand, so I guess that's something.
The main problem is that starlink is not a viable ISP like Comcast. Relying on low earth orbit is extremely wasteful as you need to constantly launch more and more satellites. Starlink gives their satellites a 5 year lifespan where fiber can go on for 40 years or more. There are 7,500 starlink satellites, so we're talking a constant replacement of satellites all falling into earth's atmosphere, not being recycled.
Starlink is literal space trash waiting to happen.
I didn't realize how temporary and disposable Starlink's satellites were. They incinerate 4 or 5 a day by de-orbiting them into the ozone. Here's a pretty good CNET article that talks about how they “dispose” of them. IDK, doesn't seem sustainable. They also mention the bandwidth gains are being diminished with the influx of new users, so their solution is more temporary satellites.
load more comments
(8 replies)
You are right in how wasteful it is, especially since it turned out a lot of those satellites don't even make it to 4 years.
However there is zero risk of space trash with Starlink. They orbit so low, it's basically within the atmosphere still. They need to constantly boost themselves, otherwise they fall down and burn up. So these satellites are coming down within years all on their own, even without any controlled disposal.
It's insanely wasteful, but it keeps SpaceX in business launching every week, which is kind of the point. But at least there isn't a Kessler syndrome waiting to happen.
Even though it’s not a space trash problem, it is a regular upper atmosphere polluter of aluminum oxide ash. We don’t yet know the long term consequences.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(22 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
You could always just fund the space agency you already have, instead of funneling money to a foreign billionaire.
No this the one time I’m with the commies. Nationalize that shit. Like you said it’s all taxpayer money anyway. A little bit of Wall Street speculation, but who gives a fuck about those people
load more comments
(59 replies)
load more comments
(12 replies)
Has anyone considered funding NASA?
They made rockets that didn't explode with duct tape and a TI-83 calculator.
Shouldn't be incompatible with nationalizing SpaceX and Starlink. Just give it all to NASA, actually.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(5 replies)
We should just fund NASA and let SpaceX and Starlink go bankrupt to competitors.
load more comments
(9 replies)
Yeah, let's give the trump administration the power to seize companies it doesn't like, that is a great idea that def won't be abused all the time
Congress has always had this power. I'm personally for nationalizing telecomm companies.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(7 replies)
See what we should do......is look to the french for inspiration on guillotine designs. Why would anyone not want to get rid of this asshole? Why would anyone like him?
load more comments
(3 replies)
Lets reach a compromise. Impeach Trump (successfully) and then take away SpaceX from Elon. That way things would be fair.
load more comments
(8 replies)
I don’t think the majority of Americans understand what that means. They’ll just scream “commies!” And raise their maga flag.
But the idea of a starlink-like business owned by UN would be nice, and not an American corporation owned by a nepobaby Elmo.
In the USA space-x gets away with a lot. A few years ago they announced they were no longer going to bother with getting all the FAA approvals needed for their rockets because it took too long. Space-x still got government contracts.
If your want proof that the wealthy live by a different set of laws, look no further than the time Elon Musk, ceo of SpaceX, went on a podcast and smoked weed.
SpaceX has DOD contracts for launches, and somehow him blatantly violating federal law had no impact on the contracts his company fulfilled for the government.
Do I think weed should be classified like it is? No.
Do I think that everyone should be held to the same standard? Yes. And if anyone else had been involved in government projects while going on podcasts and smoking weed, they’d at the very least be fired.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(6 replies)
Has US nationalized anything this millenia? I really don't see that ever happening
Tax burdens for billionaires
Also losses. Gotta get that sweet, sweet too-big-to-fail bailout money.
load more comments
(7 replies)
Arrest Musk on violation of controlled substances acts, file immigration violation charges, invalidate his ownership shares due to securities fraud, as he falsified education and naturalization forms.
Or just emminent domain the shit. The Law is just made up right now.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Giving companies to the state doesn't always work well. However giving companies to the workers does.
load more comments
(16 replies)
Starlink should be globalized. A planet only needs one low-altitude orbiting communications network. Better to standardize the technology and platform and let them contribute to one system than to have a dozen identical competing systems crashing into each other and fucking things up for everyone.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Oh my god, please. Just to see the temper tantrum from Musk.
If not Musk should be forced from his roles in these companies. You cannot be a defense contractor and do ketamine.
load more comments
(3 replies)
I've been saying this for years. the footprint that spaceX represents in national launch authority is out of whack to say the least.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Never gonna happen under republicans... or dems as they are sell outs too.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Starlink should not just be nationalized but internationalized.
It is internet for everyone on earth, not everyone in the USA.
Every larger nation deploying their own constellation would be a pointless waste of resources, and every smaller nation having to find reliable partner-nations to tap into for that internet access would inevitably lead to people ending up without access due to political games.
Low orbit satellite constellations are the perfect candidate for sharing, they would literally sit unused over most of their orbits otherwise.
load more comments
(4 replies)
view more: next ›