The author of a new biography of Elon Musk has admitted that a controversial detail in an online extract of the book – which suggested that the tech magnate thwarted a Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian naval base in September 2022 – is factually incorrect.
The extract from Walter Isaacson’s book, published in the Washington Post on Thursday, originally said that the SpaceX CEO “secretly” told engineers to turn off Starlink coverage within 100km of the Crimean coast to prevent a Ukrainian attack on the area. “As a result, when the Ukrainian drone subs got near the Russian fleet in Sevastopol, they lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly,” continued the extract.
