But this year is also the year all European companies and governments learned the hard way they need to ditch US providers, and actually started working on it.
Blackmail from your provider is not great for business relations.
Let’s not pretend otherwise.
This is all good, and as an American citizen I cheer any attempt by Europe (China, Japan, anti-China SEA players or anyone else) to provide an alternative: of tech, of weapons procurement, of social model, of political setup or of anything else. The world needs more competition.
But this article has nothing to do with the above, or with views of Musk. As others said, this request was for centralized access and SpaceX responded with a B2C proposal. It would have been rejected just as quickly even if it came from another company unaffiliated with the US.
But this year is also the year all European companies and governments learned the hard way they need to ditch US providers, and actually started working on it.
Blackmail from your provider is not great for business relations. Let’s not pretend otherwise.