Advanced Television

elon musk

Musk planning investment in South Africa

Elon Musk’s plans to start Starlink broadband services in South Africa are currently stymied. But he is reportedly planning an ambitious work-around with a 2 billion Rand (€96m) overall investment in the Southern Africa region to get around local Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) regulations. South Africa’s Business Day reports that Musk will use the investment […]

July 2, 2025

Musk updates on Ship 26 explosion

Elon Musk was somewhat caught out by talking of significant improvements that had been made to SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket. Then the test rocket, which would have become Flight #10, suffered a spectacular explosion June 19th on its test pad. Experts suggest the damage to the test stand itself possibly looks repairable. There is obviously […]

June 23, 2025

Musk loses Starship rocket

A supposedly routine static test firing of a SpaceX Starship rocket ended in a gigantic ball of flame in a huge explosion at Elon Musk’s Starbase facility in South Texas. In a statement, SpaceX said the rocket suffered “a major anomaly” while on a test stand at Starbase. “A safety clear area around the site […]

June 19, 2025By Chris Forrester

Starlink active in Iran

Despite missiles raining down – and perhaps to ensure connectivity – Elon Musk has confirmed that SpaceX’s Starlink broadband-by-satellite is now active in Iran. On June 13th, Iran’s communications ministry announced that “temporary restrictions have been imposed on the country’s internet” in response to Israel’s wave of attacks on military and nuclear facilities. The ministry […]

June 17, 2025By Chris Forrester

Third time unlucky for Musk and SpaceX

SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket failed again. It was the ninth test flight but the third failure in a row for the massive 122-metre-high rocket. The flight spun out of control about halfway through the mission but failed to achieve some of its key targets. However, the flight engineers can take some modest comfort in that […]

May 28, 2025By Chris Forrester

How will Musk square the Indian subscriber circle?

Starlink subscribers around the world pay anything between $120 (USA), A$139 (Australia), €49 (average in Europe) and Ksh 6500 (in Kenya). But SpaceX has a major dilemma in setting its pricing structure in India. Not only is India a market with plenty of established cellular competition, but also vigorous competition from Eutelsat’s OneWeb and RelianceJio/SES, […]

May 28, 2025

Tensions in South Africa over Starlink approval

Elon Musk’s previous comments that South Africa’s government was allegedly “racist” were raised during the tense meeting between President Trump and President Cyril Ramaphosa in the White House last week. Musk was present during the meeting but did not speak. South African billionaire Johann Rupert did speak and moved to quell tensions with remarks that […]

May 27, 2025

India gives ‘Letter of Intent’ to Starlink

Elon Musk’s Starlink broadband by satellite system has received a ‘Letter of Intent’ from India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The official message covers Starlink’s satellite communications services. However, there are many tough limitations being set which might make a deployment a challenge. The move comes after months of regulatory scrutiny by the DoT, which is […]

May 9, 2025By Chris Forrester

Dorsey, Musk: “Delete all IP law”

On April 11th, Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, posted “delete all IP law” on the social media platform, now rebranded as X. Current owner Elon Musk swiftly responded to the tweet with: “I agree.” AI companies including OpenAI (which Musk co-founded, competes with, and is challenging in court) are facing numerous lawsuits alleging that they’ve […]

April 14, 2025

EU supports Airbus, Thales merger

The EU’s Defence and Space Commissioner Andrius Kubilius says he has no objection to mergers in the satellite and space production sector. Speaking on April 11th at the New Economy Forum’s Europa Forum in Brussels, he said he was in favour or supporting champions, although did not specifically mention the Airbus and Thales Alenia merger […]

April 14, 2025By Chris Forrester