SpaceX is reportedly building hundreds of spy satellites for the US government:
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.
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 and tracking targets on the ground, according to Reuters. The Reuters report, which cites five sources with knowledge of the program, builds on earlier reporting by The Wall Street Journal that revealed SpaceX had signed a $1.8 billion contract in 2021 with an unnamed agency.
This network, called Starshield, would reportedly be able to gather continuous imagery all over Earth for US intelligence, using a mix of large imaging satellites to collect data and relay satellites to transmit information. According to one source who spoke to Reuters, it has the potential to make it so "no one can hide." Neither SpaceX nor the NRO directly confirmed the company's involvement in the project, but an NRO spokesperson told Reuters, "The National Reconnaissance Office is developing the most capable, diverse, and resilient space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system the world has ever seen."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Tork on Monday March 18, @08:25PM (4 children)
Protestors, for example.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Tork on Monday March 18, @09:08PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 4, Interesting) by namefags_are_jerks on Monday March 18, @10:06PM
It's certainly thinkable that knowing an Allies' secrets gives the US an advantage.
But also is knowing what the ally doesn't yet know themselves. There's been numerous examples in the US-Australian situation where the AusGov have capitulated over things like the 'Joint' Defense bases because the local parties know very well the US can just rock up to their political competitors with a nice big fat manila folder - not just the extortion stuff, but also accurate domestic statuses (food, water, incoming immigrant vessels..)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mhajicek on Monday March 18, @11:56PM (1 child)
"We have you on satellite going to the abortion clinic / gender affirming care clinic / gun store / shooting range, despite the fact that you left your phone at home. What we're you hiding?"
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 19, @12:02AM
> ... hiding...
Nothing officer, I swear. I don't have a phone to leave at home.
(Score: 4, Informative) by SomeRandomGeek on Monday March 18, @09:08PM (3 children)
The NRO has had LEO spy satellites for a very long time. So, I doubt this provides them with much in the way of new capabilities. However, spy satellites used to be quite expensive, so they needed to be selective in what they looked at, and how often they looked at it. This might potentially get them orders of magnitude more capacity. So they will be able to look at a lot more things a lot more often.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by choose another one on Tuesday March 19, @10:47AM (2 children)
Not sure it'll be just capacity they are looking at but also on-demand deployment capability. Starship is aiming for seriously rapid launch capability.
Someone wiped out (maybe EMP) your existing sat swarm? - deploy a new one in a day, maybe hours, maybe even minutes.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Tuesday March 19, @01:20PM
Not minutes. Probably not only a couple of hours. IIRC, the orbital time of a LEO is around 128 minutes, and first you'd need to get the thing up.there.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Wednesday March 20, @01:47PM
They had better re-design it from scratch then. Its liquid methane and oxygen will always take hours to fuel, apart from all the other prepartions. You need solid fuel rockets for rapid launches.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Monday March 18, @09:19PM (13 children)
If they're spying in the optical range, adaptive optics must be pretty advanced these days.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 5, Insightful) by crafoo on Monday March 18, @10:34PM (3 children)
yeah, incredibly advanced. also RF monitoring is incredible now too. picking up handheld VHF coms between ships at sea for instance, tracking people making mid-sea ship-to-ship transfers of grey-market oil. to enforce sanctions and such. and the synthetic-aperture radar we have now is absolutely incredible. this is certainly part of the USA's new Offset Strategy of creating full battlefield knowledge in real-time and using AI to filter and transmit to the most effective units able to respond.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Tuesday March 19, @08:47AM (2 children)
Why stick Artificial Stupidity in it? Conventional algorithms are probably much more effective. (We detected a bomber coming towards you, better launch a fighter to take it down).
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Wednesday March 20, @06:25PM (1 child)
I don't really know why but that's what they are doing. there has been a data gold rush in military contractors for a while now and they've been using it to build some very interesting expert systems. AI seems better at recognizing features in satellite data - far better than humans and conventional algorithms. and there is so much data to go through.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Thursday March 21, @08:41AM
Sure, I can see a role for computers to detect stuff in photos, indeed they will be better at it (doesn't have to be AS of course). It doesn't seem sane to then have the AS dispatching fighters/tanks/cruise missiles to investigate.
(Score: 2) by SomeRandomGeek on Monday March 18, @10:37PM (8 children)
While I'm sure their optics are pretty impressive, they've been spying in the optical range since 1960.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Reconnaissance_Office#History [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by turgid on Monday March 18, @10:45PM (7 children)
Yes but ar what resolution?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 5, Funny) by SomeRandomGeek on Monday March 18, @11:05PM (3 children)
To paraphrase Bill Gates, "Eight meter resolution ought to be enough for anybody."
(Score: 4, Funny) by Gaaark on Monday March 18, @11:24PM (2 children)
Or to paraphrase Melinda Gates: "Gee Bill.... 8cm is enough for anybody... really!... sure... why not.........sigh...."
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 5, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 19, @08:07AM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 19, @08:15AM
Indeed that's how Bill Gates came up with the name. Looking at himself he saw: I'm micro and I'm soft but at least that's a name for the company.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 19, @02:54AM
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/08/president-trump-tweets-picture-of-sensitive-satellite-photo-of-iranian-launch-site/ [arstechnica.com]
(Score: 5, Funny) by mhajicek on Tuesday March 19, @08:44AM (1 child)
AR resolution is usually .223", but it can vary.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 19, @04:14PM
If you are going to use decimals, why not 5.6642 mm, Or just plain less than 1/4 inch.
(Score: 2, Informative) by liar on Monday March 18, @11:13PM (5 children)
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes
Noli nothis permittere te terere.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Monday March 18, @11:59PM (4 children)
Well, with the cost coming down, maybe civilians can put up their own satellites to watch the watchers.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Tuesday March 19, @12:55AM (1 child)
civilian satellites capable of intercepting military satellites will never, ever, ever be allowed.
(Score: 3, Funny) by mhajicek on Tuesday March 19, @08:40AM
I wasn't thinking interfering with government sats, just watching people on the ground.
"Ah, Senator so and so is visiting his mistress today."
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by liar on Tuesday March 19, @02:20AM (1 child)
I was thinking about "Mr. Musk responded on his social media platform to say that he hadn't disabled the service but had rather refused to comply with an emergency request from Ukrainian officials to enable Starlink connections to Sevastopol on the occupied Crimean peninsula. That was in effect an acknowledgment that he had made the decision to prevent a Ukrainian attack." with Starlink back in Sept. of 2023 (@elonmusk on X)
Noli nothis permittere te terere.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 21, @03:00AM
Or rather a decision to refuse to involve Starlink so. The Ukrainian attack did go on [wikipedia.org], just not with Starlink's direct involvement.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by sonamchauhan on Tuesday March 19, @01:54AM
You know those lasers malcontents use to blind pilots? What if prickly governments start shining cheap lasers up the LEO swarm to blind sats? Say, hundreds of cheap lasers on a truck, airplane, balloon, or another LEO satellite in a lower orbit?
Wonder if these satellites will carry filters, movable lens caps, cooling systems, or off center cameras, to protect them being 'dazzled'?
From https://aerospace.csis.org/aerospace101/counterspace-weapons-101/: [csis.org]
Also, https://theconversation.com/russians-reportedly-building-a-satellite-blinding-laser-an-expert-explains-the-technology-186890 [theconversation.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DadaDoofy on Tuesday March 19, @09:47PM (1 child)
I find it ironic that Musk is able use this to get the Biden administration to fund SpaceX's fight against the Biden administration's temper tantrum lawfare attacks, which coincidentally started after he ended censorship of center-right voices at Twitter/X. Touché Elon!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 21, @03:02AM
(Score: 2) by datapharmer on Wednesday March 20, @07:52PM
I actually commented about the peculiarity of some of their recent launches, so this has likely been going on for a while.
Example: https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-launch-group-6-39 [space.com]
One more satellite than they normally send up ✔
Launched from the Cape instead of Kennedy ✔