John Ward June 1, 2020 Elon Musk, neocon Space hawk

EXPLOSIVE: Elon Musk & the weaponising of Outer Space

Until you factor in the Pentagon, the rationale for SpaceX and Starlink is without commercial foundation.

Think of today’s effort as one of those ‘fliers’ people like me occasionally use when they can’t entirely make sense of something.

In 2006, I wrote a blogpost asking why Bill Gates suddenly thought LAS (Low Altitude Satellites) were the new giga-investment thing. At the time, the general answer that came back was ‘satellite internet’, but somehow it didn’t ring true: puffing Billy already had a vast fortune based on software, and SatNet was very much a niche thing catering to those (like me, as it happens) who live in the outer sticks of beyond, and thus need a back-up system for when old technology fixed-line cables screw up or slow everything down.

It took twelve years for Megalomaniagate to come to light: but LAS now leads the pack in its ability to track and trace every human being showing signs of dissidence, virus contact and so forth. Mr & Mrs Gates have been fully revealed (to those paying attention) as the Unclean Finders General.

Fourteen years on, I have the same doubtful feelings about Elon Musk. He says the idea of his throng of several thousand satellites is so that fast, high-quality, locost HD internet can be available to everyone no matter how remote they might be. But there are fundamental questions not being addressed….alongside weaknesses in the concept:

Why the manned flight to launch his fleet?
I’ve been a recipient of Nordnet satellite comms now for seven years: the phone service is risible, riddled with time-gaps and altogether inferior to Whatsapp; and the internet fails the moment there is any torrential rain and/or electric storm.
Unlike the geostationary satellites commonly used by telecoms, Musk’s Starlink satellites will stay in a low Earth orbit and cross the visible sky of a given location for just a few minutes. To follow and connect to them, consumers would have to use purpose-built phased array antennas. Only mass production would make them affordable, so Musk’s SpaceX company has asked permission for a million of them.
Forgetting the antenna investment, that would give us an enormous traffic-jam problem in Space: by 2025, around 12,000 of his satellites will be in orbit, and the eventual number he wants is in excess of 40,000.
Looked at in the light of the size of market he says he is after, little of this makes sense: the 4% or so of US citizens living in remote areas (or offshore US States) simply don’t justify the investment involved.

One gets that same creepy feeling about the gdp risked by Western nations in order to deal with a coronavirus unlikely to kill more than 0.0045% of human beings.

So what is Elon Musk really up to?

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seems ready and willing to give Musk the go-ahead. Its Space department has made it clear that it wants to give the thumbs-up to ‘more satellites with much less regulation’. (The FCC recently gave up on any pretence of protecting the Net Neutrality principle.)

And harken unto this, brethren: those in charge of US defence spending have already expressed great interest in buying from SpaceX, and in using the Starlink system to improve comms among the more than a thousand overseas bases used by NATO/the CIA and the Pentagon.

Not only are the two astronauts Musk has launched into Space NASA employees, SpaceX’s billionaire founder and CEO has said he’s onboard with the sixth branch of the U.S. military, which President Donald Trump officially established in December last year.

The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act directed the establishment of the U.S. Space Force (USSF) as the sixth branch of the armed forces. White House officials confirmed that ‘The Space Force is part of the Department of the Air Force, much as the U.S. Marine Corps is part of the Department of the Navy. The new branch will be stood up over the next 18 months”.

Now then, as a sweet deal for the Muskovites, this access to the infinite US defence spending budget makes a lot more sense than the odd Alaskan Caribou, the inhabitants of Tristan da Cunha, and those fighting off Argentina’s designs on the Falkland Isles.

Elon Musk is building, if not a weapon, then at the very least a global coordination tool for American hegemenous quasi-military neocon foreign policy.

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1

Roobeedoo2 on June 4, 2020 at 7:14 pm

Starlink is visible to the naked eye here:

https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=uLiuv_1587714123

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2

Ben on June 3, 2020 at 11:07 pm

Ellon Musk”s 18,000 satellites are not for the internet that’s just a cover. They’re needed by the US military to track and destroy the new hypersonic missiles soon to come on stream . Musk is just a patsy. My theory anyway…

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3

Damian on June 3, 2020 at 11:39 am

When Musk launches his Tesla roadster to Mars it was reported as a “stunt”. The orbital path takes it into the vicinity of the asteroid belt, andI think this was his real goal, a reconnaissance mission looking for viable candidates for mining.
In terms of heavy lift capacity, nobody has built anything as large as the Saturn V booster since the Apollo missions and there comes a point where sticking expensive kit and people on top of a giant firework becomes too much of a risk.
A better alternative would be to lots of little launches carrying modular components.
I think Musk is playing the long game, he has developed SpaceX with funding from the USAF and Tesla is heavily subsidised into the bargain but, he has wider personal goals. The first private company to exploit interplanetary resources will have it made.
Wild speculation, I know.

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4

A Kearsley Lad on June 2, 2020 at 6:55 am

Space Force? WTF! We don’t need a space force! When we as a species have learned how to take care of the planet and all the people on it, and have done a good job of it, then we can start to think of passing these skills on – but not until. Especially the US should be banned from any involvement as they have demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that they are only interested in one thing – MUNNEEE.

How can we be so arrogant to think that WE can teach any alien lifeform anything at all or are capable of reaching such life forms. It’s dangerous out there! And for what?

My God, the Americans can’t even organise a foolproof voting system, and they want a Space Force!

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5

tonyopmoc on June 2, 2020 at 1:42 am

John Ward, I fancy your mate’s place in South West Wales – near where the UK Bombing Test Range is. 3 days – just my wife and I – I will maybe offer £100, after I have chekced the photography I can find the details of his local beach . I like cyrstal clear whitesand (eg whistling sands – in the Lynn Peninsular camping 50p a night the last time we were there…- it’s probably £2 a night now

Does your mate provide a geiger counter for us English tourists who occaisonally might think about staying in his house. To be honest, I think I prefer yours, but it is about 3 hours drive away from the coast, and if we come we will be coming by Sailing Boat. I doubt we will get that far, but just in case, I am trying to get fit.

We’ve got the Grandkids round later today

And there is going to be lots of fun – splashing in the paddling pool, lots of children’s screams, noise lollie pops and ice cream.

I have sorted out the children’s car seats (not easy) but basically we are ready to go. We are not all dead yet.

“I’m back
I’m back in the saddle again
I’m back
I’m back in the saddle again
Ridin’ into town alone by the light of the moon
I’m lookin’ for old Sukie Jones, she crazy horse saloon
Barkeep gimme a drink, that’s when she caught my eye
She turned to give me a wink, that’d make a grown man cry
I’m back in the saddle again
I’m back
I’m back in the saddle again
I’m back
Come easy, go easy, all right until the rising sun
I’m calling all the shots tonight, I’m like a loaded gun
Peelin’ off my boots and chaps, I’m saddle sore
Four bits gets you time in the racks, I scream for more
Fools’ gold out of their mines, the girls are soaking wet
No tongue’s drier than mine, I’ll come when I get back”..

Tony

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6

KJH on June 1, 2020 at 9:39 pm

The U.S. cannot run out of dollars.
Due to its ‘exorbitant privilege’ status, being the world’s reserve currency; the petrodollar being the world’s trading currency and by cutting its ties to gold, the U.S. can finance anything it wants without economic consequence.
It has the world’s greatest military machine and can support 800 worldwide bases because it spends as much on ‘defence’ as the rest of the world put together.
Until this changes, La di La di Dee, the beat goes on.

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7

Bill Casso on June 1, 2020 at 9:22 pm

I haven’t seen the Starlink ground terminals yet, but SpaceX has described them as “pizza box” like phased array antennas. Presumably, those will have WiFi hotspots in them for primary connectivity to user devices, although I can’t imagine that there won’t be an Ethernet port or three as well. In other words it’ll function much like your cable modem. I have a brick-sized device that I used to communicate with a constellation of satellites to send and receive texts many years ago(15-20)?. It’s so cool that I can’t throw it away. There is a market for space/ground communications but it appears to be too small for a business plan of this magnitude to succeed so I can understand your pessimism as to it’s stated goals.

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8

rtj1211 on June 1, 2020 at 8:17 pm

The Americans want to loot space for minerals, just as they have wanted to loot the earth for minerals.

They do not want any other alpha males interfering in their hegemonic quest, so they will need to militarise space to prevent anyone but the US doing anything there that the US deems unamerican (just about anything involving independent action, in other words).

They have been talking for a good few years about mining asteroids. Thing is, once you have mined it for whatever, what do you do with the whatever and where do you do it? On the moon?? Back on earth? In space-based factories?

You should always start from the premise that anything Americans do is underpinned by conquest, domination and hegemony.

There may be a few exceptions, but as a cost-benefit exercise, it is the most satisfactory starting point.

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9

Molly on June 1, 2020 at 6:42 pm

Of course, this could all be scuppered with an EMP attack, which I believe is a major possibility in the coming years. It would completely destroy say, the US in less than seven days, in fact any nation. Probably preferable to die in a thermo nuclear attack than be savagely butchered by your next door neighbour for your last can of baked beans…

Is the George Floyd incident an ‘Archduke Franz Ferdinand’ moment? Is it a catalyst that will destroy the US?

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10

C. F. Apollyon on June 1, 2020 at 5:46 pm

Creating a more or less permanent traffic jam within low-earth orbit will make it difficult for competition to arise and it will force any entities with newly hatched space programs to participate in the existing architecture. Licensing and control of technology rights, access to information, adherence to established rules, etc.. The alternative would be to develop your own architecture at great expense, or, you can buy-in to the existing for much cheaper.

Simultaneously create a net to catch (and likely destroy) any rouges trying to do their own thing via accepting the dangers of navigating pathways containing multiple things flying at high velocities, opens non-participants up to liability when launch vehicles or space craft collide with satellites when going up or down, and creates a monopoly you control and pretty much force participation in. Not to mention it creates loads of revenue streams, all of which you control.

Creating a dangerous environment in low-Earth orbit which you control makes a lot of sense. Commerce, science, exploration, legislation, regulation…in, out, up, down, or movement of any kind…not much (if anything) happens that you do not have a say in. Kinda like the existing aviation architecture(s) and their governing bodies. Or hell, every transportation architecture for that matter from bicycles, motorcycles, to cars to boats, to ships and trains, to public sidewalks and publicly accessible private properties. Participate and play this way by these rules, or else.

So yeah, a weapon is indeed being built. The less-sinister side being a flying, morphing mosquito net with all kinds of ancillary benefits to augment the trainwreck that is already zooming around up there. And this new layer has an element akin to the Strategic Defense Initiative and Rods From God projects merging, except no high intensity lasers, and the kinetic bombardment is more horizontal.

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11

english patient on June 1, 2020 at 5:35 pm

I would have thought that the thousands of 5G antenna arrays intended, or already positioned, for low earth orbit might have been worthy of mention here. This would have easily justified the business plan.

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OAH on June 1, 2020 at 4:10 pm

Completely agree. Musk is a totally, loathsome useless pos who should have been, in Nam terminology, terminated with extreme prejudice over what he did to the British hero who rescued those Thai boys trapped in a waterlogged cave, let alone his lamentable cars. He is, however, protected by the same Establishment that protected Epstein until he became too hot to handle. He is just another front or the MISC that will end the world as we know in the next decade or so. (War cycles indicate maximum war pressures from 2025-32.)

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13

jollyjamba on June 1, 2020 at 3:42 pm

I have been uneasy about Musk’s Starlink enterprise since first hearing of it. As a solution to a relatively minor problem, it seemed like expensive overkill, and I hope that term does not prove prophetic. Our identifiable gallery of global super villains is expanding rapidly. My sense is that they are growing over confident, overreaching and are therefore exposed to scrutiny. Whether or not they experience a Faustian fall has yet to be seen. I live in hope.

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Elon Musk & The Weaponising Of Outer Space – Truth is difficult but essential… on June 1, 2020 at 2:51 pm

[…] https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2020/06/01/explosive-elon-musk-the-weaponising-of-outer-space/ […]

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15

i2choose on June 1, 2020 at 2:42 pm

Great article John. Small point on net neutrality though, it’s not what we were told. I defer to Martin Geddes on this subject, who explains it very well. Those defending it had ulterior motives.

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