A secret Pentagon project. Elon Musk is building America's space eye

"SpaceX, a company owned by a controversial billionaire at odds with the Joe Biden administration, is creating a network of hundreds of spy satellites based on a secret contract with the US intelligence agency.

 

The network is being built by SpaceX's subsidiary Starshield, reports Reuters. Musk's company signed a contract worth $1.8 billion in 2021 with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the intelligence agency that manages spy satellites. The contract highlights SpaceX's involvement in U.S. intelligence and military projects and illustrates the Pentagon's deeper investment in vast low-Earth satellite systems designed to support ground forces.

 

America's space spies

 

According to Reuters, if the program is successful, it would significantly increase the ability of the U.S. government and military to quickly detect potential targets almost anywhere in the world. The contract signals growing intelligence confidence in a company whose owner has clashed with the Biden administration and sparked controversy over the use of Starlink satellite communications during the conflict in Ukraine.

 

The Wall Street Journal reported in February about the existence of a secret Starshield contract worth $1.8 billion with an unknown intelligence agency, without detailing the program's goals.

 

Reuters reveals that the SpaceX contract is for a powerful new spy system with hundreds of Earth-imaging satellites that can act as a swarm in low orbits, and that the spy agency Musk's company is working with is the NRO. Reuters was unable to say when the new satellite network would launch or what other companies were participating in the program.

 

SpaceX, the world's largest satellite operator, has developed satellites that can track ground targets and share that data with U.S. intelligence and the military. In principle, it would enable the U.S. government to rapidly record military activity in the field in real time almost anywhere in the world, helping intelligence and military operations.

 

About a dozen prototypes have been launched on Falcon 9 rockets since 2020, according to Reuters. A U.S. government database of objects in orbit shows that several SpaceX missions have deployed satellites, something neither the company nor the government has ever confirmed. These are prototypes of the Starshield network.

 

The Pentagon has been a large SpaceX customer for years, using Falcon 9 rockets to launch military payloads into space.

 

The planned Starshield network is separate from Starlink, SpaceX's growing commercial broadband network, which includes approximately 5,500 satellites in space to provide near-global internet access to consumers, businesses and government agencies.

 

A great cosmic shield

 

The Starshield network is part of the intensifying competition between the United States and its rivals to become the dominant military force in space, in part by expanding systems of spy satellites in low orbits rather than bulky and expensive facilities in higher orbits. They are intended to provide faster and almost continuous imaging of the Earth.

 

China also plans to start building its own satellite networks, and the Pentagon has warned of the threat from Russia and its space nuclear weapons, which could disable entire satellite networks.

 

Starshield is to be more resistant to attacks by sophisticated devices placed in space. The network is also expected to significantly expand the U.S. government's remote sensing capabilities and will consist of large satellites equipped with image sensors, as well as more relay satellites that transmit imaging data and other communications over the network using lasers between the satellites. Reuters informants say that the spy satellites will contain sensors provided by another company."