Comment by Mountain_Skies
4 days ago
Starlink was sold to investors as being politically neutral and almost immediately became a US military asset. It was just a matter of time before China wanted their own version. No doubt some other countries will want their own systems free of American or Chinese control, though obviously it's going to be more difficult for them to do something as complete. It's going to be an interesting choice for ESA/the EU to decide if they want their own thing too instead of relying on the US to be a fair broker of access.
And of those countries who would like to have a system free of influence from other countries, well, if they can't afford to build one out, they might be able to orbit a bunch of chaff to even the playing field again.
It makes me think that if it is cheaper to develop methods to destroy satellites than it is to make your own mega constellation, then this is the only option for other countries. They will need to possess the means to clear orbit, in order to be sure of being allowed future access to the technology. It will be the new MAD
We need a ComStar- a neutral organisation that keeps the lights on while the great houses slaughter eachother.
Eutelsat OneWeb it's mostly owned by Eutelsat and the UK government.
Eutelsat Oneweb is a subsidiary of Eutelsat group which after the bankruptcy, merger and capital raises currently composed of
- French state(29%),
- Bharti Airtel -Indian telecom group (17%),
- UK government (10%),
- SoftBank (10%) -Japanese bank
- CMA CGM(7.5%) french shipping company
- a consortium of French insurance companies with 5% .
Till recently a South Korean conglomerate Hanwha also had 5% stake .
there is a significant concentration of holding by national governments, UK do have a golden share protecting their strategic needs , but their investment is now a small minority.
it is mostly French company today with diversified direct interests from 4-5 major countries.
I just asked Google AI about this and it says: "There is no evidence in the search results that Starlink was explicitly sold to investors as being politically neutral." Also, SpaceX is a private company. The number of investors is tiny, and they are incredibly sophisticated and well-advised. Any half-wit could see that a global constellation of communication satellites would be immediately useful to the world's best funded military and the NATO alliance.
Yes, just like GPS before it, Russia, China, EU, and even Japan built their own. I can see the same happening for Starlink (at least for the military side) for those same regions.