SpaceX’s Starlink satellite service successfully completed nine months of US military tests in the Arctic, potentially clearing the way for owner Elon Musk to deepen his ties with the Pentagon in a region of growing strategic competition.
The previously undisclosed testing found that StarLink to be a “reliable and high-performance communications system in the Arctic, including on-the-move applications,” Brian Beal, principal engineer with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Integrated Capabilities Directorate, said in a statement to Bloomberg News.
What would be surprising is SpaceX doing this without being paid first (unless something crazy happened).
SpaceX is deepening its ties with U.S. intelligence and military agencies, winning at least one major classified contract and expanding a secretive company satellite program called Starshield for national-security customers.The Elon Musk-led company entered into a $1.8 billion classified contract with the U.S. government in 2021, according to company documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal. SpaceX said in the documents that funds from the contract were expected to become an important part of its revenue mix in the coming years. It didn’t disclose the name of the government customer.
The company has also won significant national-security clients for its satellite technologies—a different set of offerings from SpaceX’s traditional work blasting off satellites for those customers. One such client has been the National Reconnaissance Office, according to people familiar with the matter.
Exclusive: Musk's SpaceX is building spy satellite network for US intelligence agency, sources sayBy Joey Roulette and Marisa TaylorMarch 16, 20243:22 PM GMTUpdated 2 hours agoWASHINGTON, March 16 (Reuters) - SpaceX is building a network of hundreds of spy satellites under a classified contract with a U.S. intelligence agency, five sources familiar with the program said, demonstrating deepening ties between billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's space company and national security agencies.The network is being built by SpaceX's Starshield business unit under a $1.8 billion contract signed in 2021 with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), an intelligence agency that manages spy satellites, the sources said.
Will a Direct to Device component be included in Starshield architecture. Perhaps SpaceX will develop a custom secure waveform for DoD use and implement it in on-board RANS similar to D2D?Similar to Iridium's architecture? Iridium's 7 year EMSS ~$740MM contract ends in early 2017.
https://www.twz.com/space/if-spacexs-secret-constellation-is-what-we-think-it-is-its-game-changing
More reporting on Starshield from Yahoo Finance.https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-northrop-grumman-working-musks-144135155.htmlThe main takeaway is that Northrop Grumman is providing the sensors.
Awesome gift I received from SpaceX for working there since 2023. [Apr 24]
In a stark illustration of how rapidly the satellite communications landscape is shifting toward large constellations of smaller satellites in low-Earth orbit, the Defense Department plans to add more than 100 of SpaceX’s Starshield satellites to its future satcom architecture.
. . . the plan is to acquire a constellation of Starshield satellites by 2029, contingent upon receiving the necessary funding appropriations from Congress.
O'Shaughnessy proposed the SHIELD missile defense system, which stands for Strategic Homeland Integrated Ecosystem for Layered Defense.[9]
Since 2021, O'Shaughnessy is employed by SpaceX[10] where he leads government programs.
The most concrete evidence of Mr. Musk’s efforts to reshape the agencies he does business with are his efforts to install his employees in the Defense Department. People familiar with those efforts said Mr. Musk recommended two SpaceX employees — a retired Air Force general and a government-affairs executive — as possible hires.Among the SpaceX executives who have been recommended by Mr. Musk, Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, an adviser who is retired from the Air Force, and Tim Hughes, a government affairs executive, are among Mr. Musk’s closest advisers, according to one of the people briefed. Mr. Hughes did not return a request for comment and Mr. O’Shaughnessy could not be reached.
Elon Musk’s Martian dreams are a boon to the U.S. militaryDefense experts say SpaceX has leapfrogged global rivals and could help the United States deter -- or win -- a war against China.Amused observers have long dismissed Elon Musk’s dream to colonize Mars as unserious science fiction. But in his pursuit of the Red Planet, Musk has managed to build a deadly serious business with vast military consequences.Security experts say SpaceX has leapfrogged so far ahead in several critical technologies that it could deter major rivals like China from engaging in a war with the United States — or tip the balance if one breaks out. Others worry that it could provoke an untimely response.
Sec. 3. Implementation. Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Defense shall: (a) Submit to the President a reference architecture, capabilities-based requirements, and an implementation plan for the next-generation missile defense shield. The architecture shall include, at a minimum, plans for: ...(iii) Development and deployment of proliferated space-based interceptors capable of boost-phase intercept; ...
