Revealed: MoD and UK’s most snr scientist weren’t consulted on £400m OneWeb deal

tech.newstatesman.com

5 points·wlscr··4 comments

.... 'We've bought the wrong satellites': UK tech gamble baffles experts'. Just, yeah. SMH.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jun/26/satellite-ex...

Except they didn't buy the satellites, they bought the satellite company. The idea that a satellite company can only place a certain type of satellite in a certain orbit seems quite strange to me.

The criticism in this article that the purchase was done without consulting the Ministry of Defense seems a bit more serious. But there are always two sides of a story, and we have no idea what the other side's version is.

From the Guardian link

“What’s happened is that the very talented lobbyists at OneWeb have convinced the government that we can completely redesign some of the satellites to piggyback a navigation payload on it. It’s bolting an unproven technology on to a mega-constellation that’s designed to do something else."

> "What’s happened is that the very talented [...]"

That's not what's happened. What's happened is classified. Nobody outside the UK government and the involved people at OneWeb knows exactly what was discussed. The policy expert the Guardian contacted is just venturing a guess. And it's very easy to make anyone look like a fool when you are allowed to create your own version of the facts.

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