Chinese Starlink Rival Swoops Into Brazil After Elon Musk Feud
- Government offers SpaceSail use of equatorial launch site
- Satellite issue threatens Lula’s geopolitical balancing act
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Fresh off a bitter feud with Elon Musk over his social media platform X, Brazil is now courting a Chinese company to compete with the US billionaire’s Starlink internet service.
The government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who will host Xi Jinping this month after the Group of 20 leaders’ summit in Rio de Janeiro, has offered the use of a military space base in Brazil’s northeast to SpaceSail, a Shanghai-based satellite manufacturer.