This is what is in the MIT Technology Review report:
"When the idea was first proposed in 2020, 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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