- Elon Musk said SpaceX will donate free Starlink terminals to areas of LA hit by massive wildfires.
- The city is battling a series of huge fires which have forced over 100,000 residents to evacuate.
- Starlink has previously been used after natural disasters like Hurricane Helene, and in conflict zones.
Elon Musk says he will donate free Starlink terminals to Los Angeles as the city fights a series of devastating wildfires.
The SpaceX founder said on Wednesday night that the rocket company would provide the terminals to areas hit by the huge wildfires, which have forced 100,000 people to evacuate and plunged the region into chaos over the past few days.
“SpaceX will provide free Starlink terminals to affected areas in LA tomorrow morning,” the billionaire wrote in a post on X.
SpaceX’s Starlink service provides internet using a network of thousands of low-orbit satellites.
The technology is designed to offer connectivity in rural areas and regions without consistent internet access, and has been regularly deployed at natural disaster scenes in recent years.
Musk has also offered free Starlink services to areas hit by extreme weather events in the past.
In October, SpaceX waived costs to use the internet satellite service for those hit by hurricanes Milton and Helene, which battered the east coast of the US in late 2024 — although some users found that they still had to pay as much as $400 to purchase a Starlink terminal.
SpaceX has also deployed Starlink to war-torn regions such as Gaza and Ukraine, although not without political controversy.
Musk’s announcement that SpaceX would supply Starlink to “internationally recognized aid organizations” in Gaza prompted fierce backlash from Israel, which had largely blocked communications from the territory since it launched a destructive invasion in the aftermath of attacks by Hamas in October 2023.
The company eventually received permission to set up the service in a hospital in Gaza, Musk confirmed in July last year.
Starlink’s presence in Ukraine, where it has served as a key military communications tool for the Ukrainian army since 2022, has also dragged Musk into geopolitical minefields.
In 2023, the billionaire was heavily criticized for refusing a request from Ukrainian forces to enable Starlink over Crimea, foiling an attack on the Russian navy.
SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment, sent outside normal working hours.
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