Elon Musk at SATELLITE 2020. Photo: Via Satellite

SpaceX scored a major victory for its Starlink constellation business by winning a long sought-after license from India’s Department of Telecommunications to launch commercial operations in the country, according to a report published Friday by Reuters.

India is one of the most difficult countries for foreign companies to establish business due to its complex regulatory system. Starlink waited two years for approval to operate commercially in India. India’s Department of Telecommunications has granted similar licenses to Eutelsat OneWeb and Reliance Jio.

This milestone comes one day after a tumultuous and public political fallout between SpaceX Founder and CEO Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump. Musk, who was President Trump’s largest financial donor in the 2024 presidential election campaign and a close advisor, recently left his White House advisor role to return to managing his companies. Reports circulated that relationships between Musk, President Trump and his staff, were frayed and that Musk was asked to leave.

After leaving Washington, Musk began criticizing President Trump’s signature budget bill, which was already facing scrutiny in the U.S. Senate, claiming it would bankrupt the United States. President Trump and Musk soon began trading personal insults on social media. At one point, President Trump threatened to cancel all of SpaceX’s government contracts, which would create a nightmare scenario for NASA and the commercial space industry, which both rely on SpaceX to access space. Musk responded by threatening to decommission the Dragon capsule.