- SpaceX has been hard at work creating a satellite reconnaissance system for the U.S. government.
- This collaboration was first reported back in 2021, when Reuters revealed new details about the $1.8 billion Starshield project, saying that SpaceX was creating a spy satellite constellation for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).
- Russia and China swiftly demonized the project, urging U.S. companies to “not help a villain do evil.”
In a bombshell report by the Reuters this past weekend, SpaceX is reportedly building a “network of hundreds of spy satellites” for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)—an arm of the U.S. Defense Department that’s charged with building and operating reconnaissance satellites in orbit.
The deal is part of a $1.8 billion project known as Starshield, and Reuters reports that the system “would significantly advance the ability of the U.S. government and military to quickly spot potential targets almost anywhere on the globe.” The Starshield project first came to light in 2021 via a report from The Wall Street Journal, but didn’t include any details about the project itself or the participating government partners.
However, this deal was inked a year before SpaceX’s Starlink satellites caused controversy on the Ukrainian battlefield, when the company restricted the use of its satellite terminals to Ukrainian forces. CEO Elon Musk wrote on the platform X (formerly known as Twitter) in September of 2023 that Ukraine’s intent was to use Starlink to help “sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor…if I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”
Musk also tweeted that Starshield (unlike Starlink) will be wholly owned by the U.S. government and controlled by the Department of Defense’s Space Force, and that this was “the right order of things.”
With more than 5,500 Starlink satellites currently overhead (as of March of 2024), a similar constellation providing real-time intel for U.S. intelligence agencies has drawn predictable ire from Russia and China. One day after Reuters initial report, China’s military and state media slammed the Starshield project. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) posted on Weibo, a Chinese social media website, that “we urge U.S. companies to not help a villain do evil…all countries worldwide should be vigilant and protect against new and even bigger security threats created by the U.S. government.”
The Russian government had its own threats to issue, as its foreign ministry spokeswoman told reporters that “we are aware of Washington’s efforts to attract the private sector to serve its military space ambitions” and that SpaceX’s systems could “become a legitimate target for retaliatory measures, including military ones.” Of course, this comes from the same government trying to put nuclear weapons in Earth orbit, which isn’t exactly the friendliest of gestures (not to mention incredibly illegal).
Tensions are high in the world right now, and SpaceX’s Starlink and Starshield are increasingly at the heart of these simmering geopolitical tensions.
Darren lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes/edits about sci-fi and how our world works. You can find his previous stuff at Gizmodo and Paste if you look hard enough.
