On the first day of autumn, Elon Musk posted a tweet about his Starlink project and Afghanistan. He announced that he was ready to launch a satellite over the territory of the country. Yesterday, Ripple CTO David Schwartz responded to a recent tweet from the founder of Tesla and SpaceX with undisguised irony.
Elon Musk is confident that he will launch Starlink without problems in Afghanistan, captured by the Taliban
During a conversation on the possibility of launching Starlink in Afghanistan, Lyla Kohistany expressed her wish that Elon Musk would fill the entire sky over this country with satellites. Kohistani, who previously served in naval intelligence, believes this would allow the US military to maintain contact with groups of allies.
Former Navy intelligence officer @LylaKohistany on CNN:
“Frankly, I would love it if SpaceX would just flood Afghanistan with Starlink so that there is a way for us to maintain communication with our Afghan partners.” pic.twitter.com/iGmKP6hXaP
— Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz) September 1, 2021
Popular gamer, blogger, DJ, astrophysicist and programmer Scott Manley left a comment that in order to fulfill his plan, Musk will have to conclude an agreement with one of the countries neighboring Afghanistan. This is necessary in order to build a tower for communication with a satellite that will help the Americans in the fight against the Taliban. Manley attached a map to his message, which shows that Afghanistan is surrounded either by the countries of the former USSR, which are in Russia’s sphere of interests, or by those who do not want to maintain friendly relations with America.
Is Musk ready to comply with Taliban regulations
Musk replied to the messages received that he did not need stations, since the satellites would be equipped with laser communication lines interconnected. The project should be launched within six months.
When CNBC reporter Michael Sheetz asked how the head of SpaceX felt about compliance with Taliban regulations, he replied that he didn’t care. He wrote: “They can shake their fists at the sky.”
Sarcastic comment from Ripple CTO
I wish I could take Elon’s approach to regulatory compliance. https://t.co/vrZsN1cQWY
— Ｄａｖｉｄ Ｓｃｈｗａｒｔｚ (@JoelKatz) September 3, 2021
Last December, a lawsuit began between Ripple Labs and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The regulator accuses Ripple and two exchange executives of illegal asset trafficking.
Let’s hope that the cryptocurrency platform and all other participants in the trial will be able to come to a peace agreement, or at least quickly figure it out and deliver a fair verdict. We will also look forward to when Elon Musk launches the long-awaited Starlink.