The Elon Musk-led According to Reuters, SpaceX is constructing hundreds of surveillance satellites under a clandestine contract with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the US intelligence organization in charge of spy satellite management.
SpaceX's Starshield business subsidiary is building the spy satellites as part of a $1.8 billion contract that the space tech company and the NRO signed in 2021.
The operation, according to the paper, demonstrates the depth of SpaceX's participation in US military and intelligence initiatives. Additionally, it demonstrates a greater Pentagon commitment to large-scale low-Earth orbit satellite systems intended to assist ground forces.
If the effort is effective, it will greatly improve the US military's capacity to identify possible targets practically anywhere in the world with relative speed. It also represents an increasing level of confidence on the part of the intelligence community in a business whose owner had a falling out with the Biden administration and stirred controversy when Starlink satellite communication was used during the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The Wall Street Journal had previously published information in February on a $1.8 billion classified Starshield contract with an unidentified intelligence service. There were no known details regarding this initiative.
According to a report by Reuters, SpaceX has been awarded a contract for a new espionage system that would include hundreds of satellites with Earth-imaging capabilities that may function as a swarm in low orbit. Musk's company is collaborating with the NRO, which is the intelligence agency in question.
It is unknown when the new satellite network will go live and it is impossible to find out which other businesses have contracts with the program.
The largest satellite operator in the world, SpaceX, did not reply to multiple Reuters requests for information regarding the deal, its part in it, and specifics of satellite launches. A request for comment was forwarded to SpaceX and the NRO by the Pentagon.
According to a Reuters quotation from an NRO official, the National Reconnaissance Office is creating the most powerful, varied, and robust space-based information, surveillance, and reconnaissance system the world has ever seen.
