MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/. /TASS/. Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin believes that Starlink satellites, launched by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, can be used for military purposes in the future, including for changing the flight path of cruise missiles and managing spy networks.
"This year, they [SpaceX] received about $900 million [in state subsidies], the entire subsidy for the forthcoming period is $20 billion. So, a question arises: why would the government do that? And the answer is: those spacecraft provide internet connection, they can become a platform for steering cruise missiles, for changing their flight path when they are already in flight. [They can also be used] for sending orders to special forces, to networks of agents," he said.
According to Rogozin, Starlink can also be used to deliver "purely political, and, most likely, anti-Russian content" directly to mobile phones.
Rogozin went on to say that by now, about 1,800 Starlink satellites were delivered to the orbit. The next state of the project envisages the launch of 17,000 spacecraft. Eventually, Starlink’s orbital constellation will comprise about 42,000 satellites.
"We won’t just sit and wait, of course. We have our own project, Sfera. It was presented to the president earlier this year, and we plan to orbit hundreds of our own satellites to protect our sovereignty," Rogozin said.