US Senator Elizabeth Warren called for an investigation into SpaceX after CEO Elon Musk admitted to blocking Ukraine’s access to the Starlink satellite network during an attack on Russian warships off the coast of Crimea.
This was reported by Bloomberg, according to a report from Ukrinform.
“Congress needs to investigate what happened here and whether we have adequate tools to make sure that foreign policy is run by the government and not by a billionaire,” said Warren, D-Mass.
Musk is expected to be among the technology executives attending the closed-door meeting with senators at the Capitol on Wednesday, September 13.
Warren, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said she also wants the Defense Department to review its contractual relationship with the company.
Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reid, D-Rhode Island, also said he was concerned about the issue, given that governments have traditionally controlled satellites and presidents decide what to do with them.
He said there have been very positive developments in terms of SpaceX reducing the cost of access to space, including national security launches, “but he (Musk – ed.) cannot have the final say when it comes to national security.”
It was previously reported that Musk secretly ordered the shutdown of Starlink near Crimea last year to prevent a Ukrainian attack on the Russian Navy. It was claimed that Musk feared that Moscow would respond to Ukraine’s attack on Crimea with nuclear weapons.
He later stated that he did not instruct his experts to shut down the Starlink satellite network near the coast of occupied Crimea because it was not working there.