Cronyism, anyone?

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.

  • corsicanguppyEnglish
    571·
    22 hours ago

    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.

    • skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
      292·
      20 hours ago

      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.)

    • Avid Amoeba
      20·
      21 hours ago

      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.