- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Summary
The FAA is reportedly set to cancel a $2.4 billion contract with Verizon to modernize air traffic control communications and instead award it to Elon Musk’s Starlink.
Musk has publicly criticized Verizon’s system as failing, though without evidence. SpaceX employees have been embedded within the FAA, and some now have agency email addresses.
The move raises concerns about favoritism and conflicts of interest, especially as Musk’s companies have received $38 billion in government funding.
The contract transfer has not followed standard procedures, prompting resistance from senior FAA officials.
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Oh right here we go
Oh, THERE it is. This is why Elump has allowed so many air traffic control issues recently. To set the stage for this bullshit.
Sorry, I’m kinda slow sometimes.
“Allowed”? In what sense? Are you seriously suggesting Trump or Musk are responsible for a Delta crash in Canada, and helicopter collision and a Southwest go around?
In the sense that the issue isn’t being addressed as quickly or as seriously as it should be. Cancelling a contract and awarding it to a company with zero experience is not the answer.
So
- replace wires with satellite
- which can fail or be slow
- just so musk can shut it off at a whim
This gonna be great, you guys.
I came here to say this. This doesn’t look like replacing the air controller work, it’s about the comm network. And it’s making it dependent on fucking micro satellites, holy dumb shovel buckets.
Sorry, all flights grounded because solar flares. At least we only lost 20 planes this time.
Sorry, all flights grounded because some fuckwit decided to use satellites for a network instead of fiber underground and a bad actor jammed the radio spectrum.
Sorry, all flights are grounded because Elmo Muskrat got in a pissy fit on Twitter with a 15 year old kid, and he showed him by shutting off the satellite network over the US. (Variation on your last bullet.)
Yeah, it is in fact a terrible idea.
Lets not forget delay issues. Something that could be very deadly in ATC.
Gross
Very gross, in fact
Aaaannddd there it is… Certainly no conflicts of interest /s
The concept of a conflict of interest only matters if American voters care , and they don’t.
The attempt to sell Teslas to the military was definitely a conflict of interests as well.
Today thousands of planes lost critical communications while in the US airspace after a SpaceX test flight exploded in low earth orbit. The explosion destroyed a significant portion of the Starlink satellite constellation, and international space tracking organizations are monitoring the situation closely. They are reporting a Kessler Syndrome cascade has not been ruled out.
Hmm, convenient.
Sold all my Rocket Lab shares last week because of shit like this.
Musk is a walking ethics violation.
This is handing the button that controls your life over to elon… He had them strategically turn off Ukraine’s internet at a critical moment to benefit putin… What do you think he’s going to do when Jasmine Crockett’s plane in on final approach to land back in her district after having the “fuck off, elon” press conference?
Of course 🙄
I’m sure that will end well.
Im in my 30s and often wonder, has the world always been this infuriating? Were we going apeshit watching representatives openly steal our future in 2005? 1995?
Were dudes in 1955 Paris tearing their hair our how the president’s third cousin is getting a contract to rebuild the entire railway system on the merit of fuck all?
I’m old enough to say it was exactly like this back in 2005. That was a couple years after the Bush administration told blatant lies to start the Iraq War, ignoring the largest protests in the world up to the time. There was open corruption as they gave out massive no-bid contracts to Republican cronies like KBR. There was rank incompetence like the FEMA response to hurricane Katrina, led by a guy whose sole qualifications were running a horse breeding association (and raising a bunch of money for Republicans).
Bush threw no bid contracts for new work at Halliburton, and it was a sketchy scandal that congress wasn’t willing to prosecute, because republicans. Musk is outright stealing a contract from another vendor, while slandering them in the media.
Man for a bunch of rich assholes the GoP sure likes to shoot themselves in the foot.
Creating problems to justify enriching themselves with private contracts… America, to the highest bidder
