FAA Says It Is Testing Starlink in Alaska in Bid to Improve Weather Data

In a statement, the FAA said it has long had issues relaying reliable weather data to pilots in Alaska. It said it had been considering the use of Starlink “since the prior administration” and will install terminals at two “non-safety critical sites” in Alaska, as well as one in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Bloomberg News, which first reported the FAA’s use of Starlink, said the agency will deploy a network of 4,000 terminals over the next 12 to 18 months.

The Associated Press reported the agreement between the FAA and Starlink as a “takeover” of Verizon’s $2 billion contract to modernize the agency’s communications system. The 15-year deal was signed in 2023, and about $200 million has been spent on that project so far.

Musk on Monday in a post on X said Verizon’s system is “not working” and “putting air travelers at serious risk,” without providing evidence.

“We're at the beginning of a 15-year contract with the FAA that will help the agency modernize its technology,” Verizon spokesman Rich Young said in a statement shared with FLYING. “Protecting Americans who rely on a safe, secure, and functioning air traffic control system is more important than ever, and our enhancements will help make that happen.”

A Verizon representative told The Associated Press the company had no knowledge of its contract being modified or cancelled. Former FAA officials, meanwhile, told the media outlet they had worries about using Starlink without proper vetting.

Starlink’s relationship with the FAA also raises concerns about a conflict of interest. The White House has identified Musk, the owner of Starlink and its parent company SpaceX, as a senior adviser to President Donald Trump. But that assertion is at odds with previous statements and some of Trump’s own words indicating Musk’s involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Trump has tasked DOGE, created via executive order, with cutting federal spending, and it has already canceled contracts at other agencies.

According to The Associated Press, at least three SpaceX acolytes, including Ted Malaska, whose LinkedIn profile lists him as SpaceX’s senior director of application software, have received “ethics waivers”—awarded in rare circumstances to allow work that benefits the recipient’s company—from the Trump administration.

Malaska last week posted a photo of himself with representatives from the FAA and National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), which represents about 20,000 aviation safety personnel. NATCA has pushed back on some of the Trump administration’s proposed changes to the ATC system in the wake of January’s fatal midair collision between a U.S. Army Black Hawk and commercial passenger jet, which killed 67 people.

“Working to improve the safety of the national air space system,” Malaska wrote on X.

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