Tag Archive for: SpaceX

Musk Says South Africa Banned Starlink Because He’s ‘Not Black’

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Elon Musk claimed Friday that Starlink, his satellite internet company, is unable to operate in South Africa because he is “not black.”

SpaceX, the satellite service’s parent company, is prohibited from entering the South African market due to the country’s Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) regulations, which are meant to “enhance the economic participation of black people in the South African economy.” Musk’s remark came in response to a clip featuring Robert Hersov, a South African entrepreneur, discussing anti-white racial policies imposed by the country’s government.

“Starlink is not allowed to operate in South Africa, because I’m not black,” Musk, who was also born in South Africa before immigrating to Canada and later the U.S., said in a post on X. 

Clayson Monyela, head of public diplomacy at South Africa’s Department of International Relations, denied the claims in a response on X.

“Sir, that’s NOT true & you know it! It’s got nothing to do with your skin colour,” he said. “Starlink is welcome to operate in [South African flag emoji] provided there’s compliance with local laws. This is a global international trade & investment principle. There are over 600 USA companies investing & operating in #SouthAfrica…all complying & thriving! @Microsoft just announced additional investments yesterday.”

Under South Africa’s Electronic Communications Act (ECA) of 2005, which regulates companies building or operating telecommunications infrastructure in the country, firms cannot obtain an operating license unless they comply with a 30% minimum equity ownership requirement by “historically disadvantaged groups.”

SpaceX urged the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to reconsider its rules requiring 30% minority ownership, TechCentral reported in January.

The dispute comes amid rising tensions between South Africa and the United States. President Donald Trump announced Friday the U.S. will halt all federal funding to the country. Trump directly cited the African National Congress’ (ANC), South Africa’s ruling party, compulsory land seizures of property belonging to rural Boer farmers as a reason for the funding freeze.

“South Africa is being terrible, plus, to long time Farmers in the country. They are confiscating their LAND and FARMS, and MUCH WORSE THAN THAT. A bad place to be right now, and we are stopping all Federal Funding,” the president wrote.

Several white farmers in South Africa have been murdered in recent years, with the Transvaal Agricultural Union, a farmers’ union, estimating between 58 and 74 farmers were murdered between 2015 and 2017 in politically motivated attacks. Shaik Emam, a member of South Africa’s parliament, described the attacks as “not normal criminality” and “extremely violent and often accompanied by brutal torturing in the most barbaric way” in a 2017 debate.

The president also offered a “rapid pathway” to citizenship for South African farmers leaving the country. Musk announced a Starlink partnership with United Airlines, which was officially implemented in the airline’s systems Friday.

AUTHOR

Thomas English

Contributor.

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FAA Reportedly Considering Replacing Verizon With Musk’s Starlink For $2 Billion Air Traffic Control Contract

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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is considering canceling its $2.4 billion air traffic control communications system contract with Verizon and instead enlisting Elon Musk’s satellite company, sources told The Washington Post.

The potential shift to Starlink, the satellite communications infrastructure under SpaceX, comes after a December General Services Administration (GSA) report highlighting an “urgent” need to modernize the FAA’s dated systems. The SpaceX founder has repeatedly criticized the FAA and suggested Verizon’s systems contributed to recent deadly aviation incidents — though he later issued a correction clarifying that Verizon’s systems haven’t yet been implemented and that L3Harris, a defense contractor, operates the “ancient system” currently running air traffic control infrastructure.

“Correction: the ancient system that is rapidly declining in capability was made L3Harris. The new system that is not yet operational is from Verizon,” Musk wrote.

Verizon also emphasized that the “FAA systems currently in place are run by L3Harris and not Verizon,” and that the company was at “the beginning of a multi-year contract to replace antiquated, legacy systems” in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The telecommunications company announced its partnership with the agency through the FAA Enterprise Network Services (FENS) contract in 2023, an initiative meant to modernize air traffic control systems and communication between agency offices — though the FAA said in an X post Monday it has considered switching to Starlink “since the prior administration.” The FAA also said SpaceX employees are already working with the agency to update its aging communications infrastructure and testing Starlink systems at “non-safety critical” facilities in Atlantic City and Alaska. Some SpaceX employees already have FAA email addresses, according to The Washington Post.

“Alaska has long had issues with reliable weather information for the aviation community,” the agency wrote. “That is why the FAA has been considering the use of Starlink since the prior administration to increase reliability at remote sites, including in Alaska. This week, the FAA is testing one terminal at its facility in Atlantic City and two terminals at non-safety critical sites in Alaska.”

Starlink expects to install 4,000 satellite terminals at these sites over the next 12 to 18 months, according to Bloomberg.

Democratic lawmakers including California Sen. Adam Schiff and Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey have raised ethical concerns ahead of the potential partnership, with Schiff arguing in a Feb. 10 letter to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles that Musk’s financial interests in the contract create serious ethical issues. Markey wrote a similar letter to the FAA on Wednesday.

“Mr. Musk holds substantial financial interests in private companies, including Tesla, Inc., SpaceX, The Boring Company, xAI, X Corp and Neuralink,” the senator wrote. “Mr. Musk’s companies have also been the subject of at least 20 recent investigations by federal agencies, which heightens the risk that Mr. Musk may seek to use his new position to shield his companies from federal scrutiny.”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy defended the development in a Fox News column on Feb. 19, stating the integration of SpaceX infrastructure in air traffic control systems is “just the start” of the modernization effort.

“The Government Accountability Office stated that among the FAA’s 138 systems, 51 are unsustainable and the agency doesn’t plan to complete modernization projects for some of these systems for at least 10 years,” Duffy wrote. “Additionally, the FAA doesn’t yet have plans to modernize other systems in need — three of which are at least 30 years old … Despite the obvious need for reform, partisans are certain to criticize this upcoming SpaceX visit, manufacturing illusory controversy rather than welcoming progress.”

The FAA and SpaceX did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

AUTHOR

Thomas English

Contributor.

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All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

EXCLUSIVE: Musk Quietly Inserts DOGE Across Federal Agencies In Move That Could Uproot $162,000,000,000 Govt Industry

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As federal employees launched protests of entrepreneur Elon Musk’s disruption of federal agencies last week, the Office of Personnel Management quietly released a memo shoring up the formal structure of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

An OPM memo dated Feb. 4 seeks the redesignation of chief information officers across the government from career positions political appointees. OPM has recommended that every agency send a request to OPM to reclassify its CIO role from career reserved to “general” by Feb. 14.

The new CIO positions will be working with DOGE, a source familiar confirmed to The Daily Caller News Foundation.

The new memo gives the greatest detail about how DOGE will operate within the federal government since a Jan. 20 executive order. Yet it has been entirely overlooked by the legacy press, which has relied largely on career officials within the government who characterize DOGE’s actions as extra-governmental. Democrats like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have sought to portray the effort as a “coup.”

However, the memo shows that DOGE is attempting to regularize its operations within the federal government.

“It is a focus of President Trump’s administration to improve the government’s digital policy to make government more responsive, transparent, efficient, and accessible to the public, and to make using and understanding government programs easier,” the memo reads.

Unlike most major institutions, the federal government has no central IT department. Instead, IT responsibilities are dispersed across federal agencies which in turn spend billions on contractors and disparate artificial intelligence technologies. Musk’s housecleaning could reshape this $163 billion industry.

DOGE is the renamed U.S. Digital Service. The U.S. Digital Service is a small office within the White House created to build the health care exchanges under the Affordable Care Act and advises on technical strategy. How the DOGE office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building will liaison with CIOs throughout the government is not yet clear.

A Washington Post report revealed Monday that Edward Coristine, the 19-year-old DOGE team member known online as “Big Balls,” has been stationed at the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Technology. The Bureau of Diplomatic Technology provides IT services.

The memo states that the new DOGE-aligned CIOs will take on a major role in public policy on technology.

The memo gives some insight into what they will prioritize, like improving government procurement policies and privacy, and deprioritize, namely diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

“Poor technology-procurement policies can endanger property and privacy rights. Inadequate security policies can lead to vulnerabilities and hacks,” it states. “Emphasis on policies like [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility] siphons labor and resources from other core government objectives.”

The Biden administration helped lay the groundwork for the change. Two earlier OPM memos cited in the Feb. 4 memo broadened the authority of government appointees to look outside of government for highly technical roles, including one released in the final months of the last administration.

A 2018 OPM memo under the first Trump administration noted “severe shortages of candidates and/or critical hiring needs” for STEM and cybersecurity. A September 2024 memo released under the Biden administration noted that “severe shortage of talent” in cybersecurity and other high-tech sectors persisted.

The new memo states that moving certain CIO positions away from career positions could help to alleviate it by dramatically increasing the number of candidates available to fill these important roles.

The move is in keeping with public statements about DOGE made by Musk and former DOGE co-lead and potential Ohio gubernatorial hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy about improving the federal government’s tech infrastructure, including examining the vendors the U.S. government works with and the fact that these systems don’t communicate across agencies.

Musk’s biography on his website X reads “White House Tech support.”

“My preferred title in the new administration is Volunteer IT Consultant,” Musk wrote on X on Dec. 9. “We can’t make government efficient & fix the deficit if the computers don’t work.”

“The federal government is the world’s largest IT customer… In theory, this *should* give us great buying power to negotiate good deals for taxpayers, but of course that’s not what happens,” Ramaswamy said on Dec. 5. “If the federal government were serious about reducing costs, it would procure government-wide licenses.”

Despite the intense focus on DOGE, there has been little discussion of the federal government’s existing methods for managing data and records.

The top five contractors on IT together took in $45 billion in 2024, according to Washington Technology, a trade publication that uses federal procurement data, USASpending.gov and company Security and Exchange Commission filings.

Musk’s SpaceX was the 39th largest federal contractor in government technology at approximately $1 billion. That represents about one third of Musk’s reported $3 billion in contracts with the U.S. government. Musk’s contracts in IT include the delivery of Starlink satellite internet units and services to national and state parks and the State Department, and the provision of a satellite network called Starshield to the U.S. Space Force.

While Musk’s potential conflicts have been in the spotlight, all of the top five current contractors on government IT have either a former government official or member of Congress on their boards of directors, and sometimes multiple government officials. They include a former admiral, a former Pentagon acquisitions official, joint chiefs of staff leadership, a former deputy secretary of defense, and a former chair of the Armed Services Committee.

In addition, all of these companies use various artificial intelligence technologies across all of their federal contracts, many of them non-open source.

Musk and DOGE were dealt a setback on Saturday when District Judge Paul Engelmayer ordered a temporary stop on DOGE’s work with U.S. Treasury data, citing cybersecurity concerns. The suit was filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James and 18 other state attorneys general.

A Washington Post story reported Friday night that Booz Allen Hamilton had described the DOGE team’s access to Treasury data — reportedly “read only” access that doesn’t allow for data manipulation — as “the single greatest insider threat risk the Bureau of Fiscal Services has ever faced.”

The company put out a statement hours after the assessment became public.

“Booz Allen did not conduct a threat assessment or make recommendations regarding DOGE,” a statement read. “Commentary provided in a draft document by a subcontractor contained unsubstantiated personal opinions. … Booz Allen has terminated the subcontractor.”

Booz Allen Hamilton is the government’s fourth largest contractor on IT issues, taking in $8.2 billion in 2024.

AUTHOR

Emily Kopp

Contributor.

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Inside the DOGE Revolution

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Musk-Vance Tag Team Delivers Knockout Blow To Cancel Culture, Rehires DOGE Staffer

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Elon Musk reinstated a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) aide Friday, just one day after the staffer resigned following reports that he operated an inflammatory social media account.

The aide, 25-year-old Marko Elez, had stepped down Thursday after The Wall Street Journal linked him to a pseudonymous X account reportedly containing racist posts. His return followed a Friday morning poll by Musk asking users whether to rehire Elez, with 78% of over 385,000 participants voting yes. Vice President JD Vance also backed Elez’s reinstatement, arguing “we shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people.”

“He will be brought back,” Musk wrote. “To err is human, to forgive divine.”

Elez had reportedly made multiple inflammatory remarks in the now-deleted posts, including calls to “normalize Indian hate.” The user also bragged that he was “racist before it was cool,” adding that “you couldn’t pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” according to the outlet.

“I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life,” the vice president wrote after Musk’s poll closed. “We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back. If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that.”

Democratic California Rep. Ro Khanna, a child of Indian immigrants, responded by asking Vance if Elez would have to apologize as a prerequisite for his reinstatement, adding, “Just asking for the sake of both of our kids.” Vance, whose wife is also the child of Indian immigrants, responded in a series of posts.

“For the sake of both of our kids? Grow up,” Vance wrote. “Racist trolls on the internet, while offensive, don’t threaten my kids. You know what does? A culture that denies grace to people who make mistakes. A culture that encourages congressmen to act like whiny children.”

“I don’t worry about my kids making mistakes, or developing views they later regret. I don’t even worry that much about trolls on the internet. You know what I do worry about, Ro? That they’ll grow up to be a US Congressmen who engages in emotional blackmail over a kid’s social media posts,” the vice president continued. “You disgust me.”

Asked about Vance’s support for the reinstatement, President Donald Trump echoed the vice president during a White House press conference with Shigeru Ishida, Japan’s prime minister.

“Well, I don’t know about the particular thing, but if the vice president said that — did you say that? I’m with the vice president,” Trump said.

Over the past week, Elez emerged at the center of a legal row over DOGE’s access to sensitive payment systems and taxpayer data in the Treasury Department. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly agreed Thursday to temporarily limit Elez and other DOGE staffers’ ability to share Treasury data outside the department, but allowed them continued “read-only” access.

Elez graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in computer science and later went on to work at SpaceX, specifically on its Starlink satellites, according to The Wall Street Journal. He later worked for Musk again at X, where he focused on artificial intelligence.

AUTHOR

Thomas English

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Comrade Gavin Newson Ruler of California is losing SpaceX and ‘X’ Formerly known as Twitter

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Congratulations to Elon Musk for his superb endorsement of President Trump and for the $45 million dollars a month he will be sending to Trump’s Super Pac to help defeat the installed Communist bottom feeder in the White House, the corrupt Joe Biden.

The Democrats though are still on a role trying to decimate our nation with its relentless attacks on our entrepreneurial spirit trying to wear us down with high taxes and insane regulations while collapsing the free markets across our republic especially in California, the poster child cesspool of Communist activity.

Governor Newsom the Marxist dictator of California still not happy with totally crushing corporate restaurant businesses like Macdonald’s, Wendy’s Marco Pizza etc. with his Soviet style interference in California’s wages law mandating $20 an hour unless you bake bread, has now decided to become the parent of all children in the Marxist California indoctrination camps called High Schools.

Comrade Newson signed into law AB-1955 or the Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth (SAFETY) Act. There is nothing safe about it but it is a major threat to parental controls of their children with Comrade Newson now placing more unconstitutional restrictions on parenting. It’s nothing more than pure Soviet style boots on the necks of once free citizens.

Elon Musk pays close attention to state legislatures especially in California and when they start implementing Soviet style governance like this one on the residents of California he makes business decisions to protect his employees and his company.

After Comrade Newson signed AB-1955 into law on July 15th 2024 Elon Musk today July 16th 2024 is now in the process of drawing up plans to move his company SpaceX headquarters from Hawthorne California to Texas. .

He is giving his 13,000 employees plenty of notice to start moving to Starbase in Texas. Texas has zero state income tax and corporate tax so the state is pretty much tax friendly on its residents other than its higher than norm property tax base.

Last year Elon Musk told Comrade Newson “Ruler of California ” if you implement any more Soviet style legislation in California he is totally closing down shop in that state. That is now in process with more tax revenue and job creation being directed towards Texas.

Elon Musk also owns the social media communication platform “X” formerly known as Twitter with its headquarters in the human fecal capital of the world San Francisco. “X” has about 1,000 employees who will also be given the option to move to Austin Texas.

What I like about Space X though is that it is putting the cost overrun champions of the world NASA slowly out of business. I also like the fact that these Marxists that pay their so-called fair share of taxes to the Treasury Department are funding NASA who in turn pay Elon Musk fantastic amounts of money to launch satellites into space with huge profit margins which in turn allows Elon to fund Trump’s presidential campaign.

Trump made Mexico pay for the wall and Elon is getting Democrats in part to fund Trump’s presidential campaign. America is a great place right ? If you live in California, my condolences.

God Speed to SpaceX and “X” as they relocate to the free state of Texas.

©2924. Geoff Ross. All rights reserved.

Elon Musk Says 100 Starlinks Now Active in Iran to Circumvent Government Internet Restrictions on Protesters

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Elon Musk has not only “dealt a body blow to the Left’s authoritarian agenda by buying one of the world’s most popular social media platforms,” Twitter, but he’s also helping to enable some ability for Iranian dissidents to communicate with the world. Musk’s Starlink, a “satellite-based broadband service could help Iranians circumvent the government’s restrictions on accessing the internet and certain social-media platforms amid protests around the country.” Thus it allows the truth about Iran to be revealed to everyone.

Musk’s Starlink is revolutionizing Internet technology globally. Last month, the UK began trials using Starlink “to beam high-speed broadband to remote areas of UK.” In 2020, Starlink was already being reported to be a possible “uncensored internet solution” for North Korea, that “could prove a game-changer.”

Elon Musk says around 100 Starlinks now active in Iran

Reuters, December 26, 2022:

SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Monday that the company is now close to having 100 active Starlinks, the firm’s satellite internet service, in Iran, three months after he tweeted he would activate the service there amid protests around the Islamic country.

Musk said, “approaching 100 starlinks active in Iran”, in a tweet on Monday.

The billionaire had said in September that he would activate Starlink in Iran as part of a U.S.-backed effort “to advance internet freedom and the free flow of information” to Iranians.

The satellite-based broadband service could help Iranians circumvent the government’s restrictions on accessing the internet and certain social media platforms amid protests around the country……

Read more.

AUTHOR

CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

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