The Download: Ukraine’s Starlink repair shop, and predicting solar storms
Rhiannon Williams
created: Aug. 21, 2025, 12:10 p.m. | updated: Aug. 26, 2025, 5:40 p.m.
Starlink is absolutely critical to Ukraine’s ability to continue in the fight against Russia.
However, Donald Trump’s fickle foreign policy and reports suggesting Elon Musk might remove Ukraine’s access to the services have cast the technology’s future in the country into doubt.
For now Starlink access largely comes down to the unofficial community of users and engineers, including the expert “Dr.
Russia continues to launch frequent aerial bombardments of Ukrainian cities, sometimes sending more than 500 drones in a single night.
Surya, trained on over a decade’s worth of NASA solar data, should help give scientists an early warning when a dangerous solar flare is likely to hit Earth.
3 months, 3 weeks ago: MIT Technology Review