Elon Musk’s Satellites Will (Probably) Not Trigger a War in Space

Over the last five years, Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, has put thousands of satellites into orbit — with the goal of creating a network of 42,000 — in order to give everyone on Earth high-speed, low-cost internet access. All anyone will need is a Starlink terminal. He claimed on Twitter in 2020 that there will be no training required: “Instructions are simply: — Plug in socket — Point at sky.”

Western pundits, journalists and tech enthusiasts have rushed to describe the social benefit they think Starlink will offer to…