SpaceX is reportedly building a network of spy satellites for US intelligence

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SpaceX’s Starshield portion has had a classified declaration with the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) since 2021 to physique a web of “hundreds” of spy satellites for the agency, Reuters reports today, citing unnamed sources “familiar with the program.”

A Wall Street Journal report successful February listed a classified $1.8 cardinal SpaceX declaration with a then-unnamed authorities agency. Now Reuters has attached a name, and that it’s to physique a web of “hundreds of satellites bearing Earth-imaging capabilities that tin run arsenic a swarm successful debased orbits.”

The study didn’t accidental erstwhile the web volition beryllium operational oregon what different companies are involved. It does notation that a US database of abstraction objects lists satellites deployed by SpaceX that the institution and authorities person not acknowledged and cites sources confirming those objects arsenic Starshield prototypes.

Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge A screenshot from SpaceX’s Starshield website.

SpaceX describes Starshield arsenic a government-focused unafraid outer network, and Elon Musk tweeted it “will beryllium owned by the US authorities and controlled by DoD Space Force.” Last fall, the concern portion signed a US Space Force contract to supply outer communications for the subject via Starlink.

According to Reuters, if the NRO declaration is simply a success, it would “significantly beforehand the quality of the U.S. authorities and subject to rapidly spot imaginable targets astir anyplace connected the globe.

While an NRO spokesperson reportedly declined to remark connected Reuters findings astir SpaceX’s involvement, it confirmed to the outlet that it’s moving to make “the astir capable, diverse, and resilient space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance strategy the satellite has ever seen.”