Elon Musk responds to claims SpaceX is involved in the missing Titanic submarine

The world is patiently awaiting news of the OceanGate submarine and its five passengers that lost communication with the outside world as it plummeted to 12,500 feet below the surface to observe the Titanic wreck.

Elon Musk's SpaceX has been caught up in the news surrounding the missing submarine, with reports stating that the submarine used SpaceX's Starlink service to provide an internet connection while it was out at sea. The reports cited a tweet from OceanGate Expeditions that announced it was using Starlink to acquire an internet connection necessary "to make our #Titanic dive operations a success."

Musk responded to a tweet by Snopes that brought Musk's name into the ongoing situation by pointing out that he is the CEO of SpaceX, the company behind Starlink. Musk said in response to the tweet, "You can't even run a good psy op". Notably, many people thought that an inefficient Starlink connection was the reason why communications dropped out between the submarine and the research vessel it launched from.

• Read more: Banging sounds detected by aircrafts looking for missing Titanic submarine, says US Coast Guard
• Read more: Mark Zuckerberg accepts Elon Musk's cage fight challenge, Vegas Octagon named as location

However, these claims are false. Starlink operates in the 10.7 to 12.7 GHz band, and the 2.45GHz band can penetrate water <8cm but falls off with increasing frequency the deeper it goes. Meaning Starlink cannot be used to communicate with a submarine that is traveling miles below the surface of the ocean.

"There is no such thing as internet service several miles underneath the fucking ocean. snopes is as viciously partisan and 'fake' as any conspiracy subreddit i've ever encountered," writes Mike Solana.