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SpaceX “Donated” Starlink Terminals to Ukraine. Taxpayers Paid SpaceX Millions

atlasunshrugged 5y ago
Seems like in reality USAID paid for part and SpaceX donated a good amount but indeed, the general narrative and Elon tweets I saw didn't reflect the fact that the US government paid for anything or had anything to do with Starlink terminals in Ukraine.
ShivShankaran 5y ago
ProAm 5y ago
All of Elon Musk's companies are heavily subsidized by the US tax payer. Solar City, SpaceX and Tesla would not be successful if it weren't for subsidies and tax breaks.
- atlasunshrugged 5y ago
  Did SpaceX get a lot of subsidies and tax breaks? I thought they just got a lot of government contracts for their services
- panick21_ 5y ago
  Any large companies that make large investment in new infrastructure and factories get tax breaks. So those are really not special or interesting. People can be made about those but not specifically made about any individual company getting them. Go to a state and build a multi-billion project, you will get tax breaks. Solar City clearly profited from tax policy but the whole solar industry was basically profiting from this, nothing to do with Solar City in particular. Tesla received a 400M lone around 2010-2014 for advanced vehicle manufacture. Tesla paid this back early with profit to the tax payer. Tesla could have got this money other ways at that point (possible with more shares being sold). Unlike all the other car companies like Ford and GM who have still not paid the government back for loans from the same program (and also achieved far less with their far larger loans). Much later on the government created the EV tax break program, again for all car companies, not specific to Tesla. Tesla quickly used its 250k of cars that they could for this program and other car companies wait for years to use these (and some are still) after Tesla had done most of the hard work to make EV space happen. SpaceX actually ended MASSIVE subsidies for ULA. ULA was a monopoly that received outrages subsidies IN ADDITION to outrages launch prices they were asking for. SpaceX was never directly subsidies, they bid for competitive contracts from NASA/DoD like every other space company in the US. The only subsidy the did receive was a couple years ago when some Starlink terminals will be available for cheaper in some poor region. So yes, almost all of aerospace is connected to the government, I guess one can complain about that. Tesla has gotten less help from government then people assume and often the policies helped their competitors more then them.
panick21_ 5y ago
So they paid 1333, and SpaceX sent an additional 3667. So why is 'Donated' in quotes?
- spikels 5y ago
  Tech journalism is more dependent on clickbait than most. I think they think tech is boring so they need to spice it up with manufactured controversy. Science journalism has a similar issue. Very sad.
rektide 5y ago
I'm ok with this, but I wish DARPA & the gov in general would spin up some new low-cost internet connectivity projects. This was easy to ship out, good to go, but a couple million for some super interesting technology to give Democratic values & systems a major bump seems like money well spent. Bring back works like Commotion Wireless[1]! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commotion_Wireless https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commotion_Wireless
rosndo 5y ago
> But we only now know that he did so with lots of help from the U.S. government. And a major assist from the U.S. taxpayer. How is $3 million a “major assist”? That’s pocket change. Surely SpaceX doesn’t even make a profit on these terminals, but relies on subscription fees. Right?

Seems like in reality USAID paid for part and SpaceX donated a good amount but indeed, the general narrative and Elon tweets I saw didn't reflect the fact that the US government paid for anything or had anything to do with Starlink terminals in Ukraine.

ShivShankaran 5y ago

ProAm 5y ago

All of Elon Musk's companies are heavily subsidized by the US tax payer. Solar City, SpaceX and Tesla would not be successful if it weren't for subsidies and tax breaks.

atlasunshrugged 5y ago
Did SpaceX get a lot of subsidies and tax breaks? I thought they just got a lot of government contracts for their services
panick21_ 5y ago
Any large companies that make large investment in new infrastructure and factories get tax breaks. So those are really not special or interesting. People can be made about those but not specifically made about any individual company getting them. Go to a state and build a multi-billion project, you will get tax breaks. Solar City clearly profited from tax policy but the whole solar industry was basically profiting from this, nothing to do with Solar City in particular. Tesla received a 400M lone around 2010-2014 for advanced vehicle manufacture. Tesla paid this back early with profit to the tax payer. Tesla could have got this money other ways at that point (possible with more shares being sold). Unlike all the other car companies like Ford and GM who have still not paid the government back for loans from the same program (and also achieved far less with their far larger loans). Much later on the government created the EV tax break program, again for all car companies, not specific to Tesla. Tesla quickly used its 250k of cars that they could for this program and other car companies wait for years to use these (and some are still) after Tesla had done most of the hard work to make EV space happen. SpaceX actually ended MASSIVE subsidies for ULA. ULA was a monopoly that received outrages subsidies IN ADDITION to outrages launch prices they were asking for. SpaceX was never directly subsidies, they bid for competitive contracts from NASA/DoD like every other space company in the US. The only subsidy the did receive was a couple years ago when some Starlink terminals will be available for cheaper in some poor region. So yes, almost all of aerospace is connected to the government, I guess one can complain about that. Tesla has gotten less help from government then people assume and often the policies helped their competitors more then them.

panick21_ 5y ago

So they paid 1333, and SpaceX sent an additional 3667. So why is 'Donated' in quotes?

spikels 5y ago
Tech journalism is more dependent on clickbait than most. I think they think tech is boring so they need to spice it up with manufactured controversy. Science journalism has a similar issue. Very sad.

rektide 5y ago

I'm ok with this, but I wish DARPA & the gov in general would spin up some new low-cost internet connectivity projects. This was easy to ship out, good to go, but a couple million for some super interesting technology to give Democratic values & systems a major bump seems like money well spent. Bring back works like Commotion Wireless[1]! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commotion_Wireless https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commotion_Wireless

rosndo 5y ago

> But we only now know that he did so with lots of help from the U.S. government. And a major assist from the U.S. taxpayer. How is $3 million a “major assist”? That’s pocket change. Surely SpaceX doesn’t even make a profit on these terminals, but relies on subscription fees. Right?