This is what is in the MIT Technology Review report:
"*When the idea was first proposed in 2020
<https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/28/1008972/us-army-spacex-musk-starlink-satellites-gps-unjammable-navigation/>,
executives at SpaceX were open to the idea, says Humphreys. Then word came
from on high. “Elon told the leaders we spoke to: every other LEO [low
Earth orbit] communications network has gone into bankruptcy,” Humphreys
told MIT Technology Review. “And so we [SpaceX] have to focus completely on
staying out of bankruptcy. We cannot afford any distractions.*”

Heshamn

On Fri, Sep 8, 2023, 9:15 PM David Lang <david@lang.hm> wrote:

> On Sat, 9 Sep 2023, Larry Press via Starlink wrote:
>
> > Why does Elon Musk object to the use of Starlink for navigation?
>
> He hasn't said, but I suspect a couple reasons
>
> limitations on what SpaceX can do, orbital changes, protocol changes, etc
> could all affect people depending on something that Starlink wasn't
> intending to
> offer in the first place
>
> liability, what happens when the navigation gives the wrong location
> because
> of a change Starlink made.
>
> to use the satellite signals, you not only need the timing, you need
> rather
> precise orbital information. If the satellites are modifying their orbits
> autonomously, how does that information get to everyone?
>
> For normal Starlink purposes, the satellites determine which sat is
> covering
> what area on the ground and the ground stations can react to the different
> sats
> that they hear (beaming back on reciprical bearings or the beam info can
> be in
> the handshake)
>
> but navigation requires getting the signals from many sats at once to work
> out
> the timing between them
>
> note, I have no inside info, this is just my version of logical guessing.
>
> David Lang
>
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