“Elon Musk has been pretty cavalier about his ability to turn on or turn off Starlink to influence policy decisions,” Garner, from the Benton Institute, told me, referring to a series of recent posts on X from Musk about cutting off Starlink access in Ukraine.

Two NASA officials have weighed in on the public dispute over when and how to bring home Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been on the International Space Station since June.