FAA reportedly ordered staff to find millions of dollars to fund Starlink deal

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In line with Rolling Stone, staff with the Federal Aviation Administration had been informed on Friday to “start discovering tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} for a Starlink deal,” after The Washington Post reported that the FAA may cancel its $2.4 billion contract with Verizon to overtake the US’s airspace administration techniques and go along with Elon Musk’s firm as a substitute. Whether or not the FAA has truly dropped its Verizon deal in favor of Starlink has but to be confirmed publicly.

Nameless sources informed Rolling Stone that the orders from FAA officers on Friday had been “delivered verbally” to workers, in an “uncommon” transfer. It comes a number of days after Musk claimed on X that the state of affairs round air site visitors management communications is “extraordinarily dire,” saying the present system (which he wrongly attributed to Verizon earlier than later including a correction) is “breaking down very quickly.” He went on to say that “Starlink terminals are being despatched at NO COST to the taxpayer on an emergency foundation to revive air site visitors management connectivity.”

Bloomberg, citing sources near the matter, beforehand reported that 4,000 Starlink terminals had been being despatched to assist improve the FAA’s networks, which the FAA confirmed. In an announcement posted on X in response final week, the FAA claimed it’s “been contemplating using Starlink for the reason that prior administration.” As lately as Wednesday, although, the FAA mentioned in statements to The Washington Publish and different publications that it had not decided about its Verizon deal.

The company is certainly one of many who has been hit by layoffs led by Musk’s DOGE over the previous couple of weeks, with hundreds of FAA employees fired in February.

This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/faa-reportedly-ordered-staff-to-find-millions-of-dollars-to-fund-starlink-deal-205236985.html?src=rss

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