According to a report from Reuters, SpaceX has been contracted by the Department of Defense’s National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to build a network of hundreds of low-orbiting spy satellites capable of operating as a swarm.
Starsheild is just a satellite bus, which is just sorta like the central building block for satellites. It handles communication, navigation, etc. The government will likely be in total control of the system once it’s deployed.
Oh don’t worry, they’re not giving him the real spy satellite optics for these flying digital cameras. A low orbit trash satellite cluster that will waste itself in no time is just a nice thing for the DoD to shovel money into.
Each keyhole satellite, by comparison, costs $1 billion.
Probably a lot from star link business but separately, launching a government satellite does not give you continued access to that satellite’s business.
Just imagine highly classified intelligence information in the hands of dangerous people like Moron Musk
Just imagine the US goes to war and Elon shuts them off because some foreign leader strokes his (let’s say) ego.
Starsheild is just a satellite bus, which is just sorta like the central building block for satellites. It handles communication, navigation, etc. The government will likely be in total control of the system once it’s deployed.
Communication is kinda important.
Oh don’t worry, they’re not giving him the real spy satellite optics for these flying digital cameras. A low orbit trash satellite cluster that will waste itself in no time is just a nice thing for the DoD to shovel money into.
Each keyhole satellite, by comparison, costs $1 billion.
Probably a lot from star link business but separately, launching a government satellite does not give you continued access to that satellite’s business.