The project is designed to offer the most persistent, pervasive and rapid coverage of activities on Earth.
SpaceX is building a network of hundreds of spy satellites under a classified contract with a US 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 sources said that if successful, the program would significantly advance the ability of the US government and military to quickly spot potential targets almost anywhere on the globe. Reporting by Reuters discloses for the first time that the SpaceX contract is for a powerful new spy system with hundreds of satellites bearing earth-imaging capabilities that can operate as a swarm in low orbits, and that the spy agency that Musk’s company is working with is the NRO.
The satellites can track targets on the ground and share that data with US intelligence and military officials, the sources said. In principle, that would enable the US government to quickly capture continuous imagery of activities on the ground nearly anywhere on the globe, aiding intelligence and military operations, they said.
The Pentagon is already a big SpaceX customer, using its Falcon 9 rockets to launch military payloads into space. Starshield’s first prototype satellite, launched in 2020, was part of a separate, roughly $US200 million contract that helped position SpaceX for the subsequent $US1.8 billion award, one of the sources said.
“No one can hide,” one of the sources said of the system’s potential capability when describing the network’s reach.
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