- Wednesday, February 19, 2025
SpaceX’s Starlink has long wanted to enter India and has clashed with Mukesh Ambani’s company over how the country should grant spectrum for satellite services
By: India Weekly
TESLA and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk presented a Starship relic as a gift to prime minister Narendra Modi during a meeting in Washington on Thursday (13), according to media reports.
The relic appears to be a heatshield tile that flew on SpaceX’s starship test flight 5 in October last year. It was engraved with the words: “Starship Flight Test 5. October 13, 2024.”
At a meeting that was held at the Blair House, the US president’s Guest House, Musk was accompanied by his three children and partner Shivon Zilis
External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar and NSA Ajit Doval were also present.
Modi wrote on X that they discussed issues including space, mobility, technology and innovation.
“Their discussion also touched on opportunities to deepen cooperation in emerging technologies, entrepreneurship and good governance,” India’s foreign ministry said separately in a statement.
SpaceX’s Starlink has long wanted to launch in India and has in recent months clashed with billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s company over how the country should grant spectrum for satellite services.
India’s government has sided with Musk that spectrum should be assigned and not auctioned, but Starlink’s licence application is still under review.
India’s looming decision on US-based Starlink has shaken the country’s domestic satellite internet sector and made its regulatory strategy on space-based communications a key issue in the country’s push to stimulate commercial space activities and become a competitive force in the global space race.
Musk, a “special government employee” helming a disruptive effort to rid federal agencies of excessive spending, often serves as a key link between heads of state and SpaceX, which has dominated the global space industry with its vast Starlink network and its Falcon 9 launches that much of the Western world uses for space access.
Big decisions on technology and space matters have followed state visits by Modi in the past.
India in 2023 signed the US Artemis Accords – a set of guidelines for modern space and moon activities – following meetings in Washington between Modi and former U.S. president Joe Biden.
Musk’s meeting with Modi drew the ire of some Democrats who say the billionaire executive’s influential role in the Trump administration poses conflicts of interest.
“Musk is effectively operating as the Secretary of State, and he is meeting with a key foreign leader not to ask for concessions that would benefit Americans, but for concessions that would make him rich,” Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said of Musk’s Modi talks in a post on X.
Given Musk’s many powerful roles, it was unclear in what capacity he held his meeting with Modi.
“I would imagine he met possibly, because you know he’s running a company,” Trump told reporters on Thursday. (Agencies)
