According to a recent Reuters report, Elon Musk signed a $1.8 billion contract in 2021 with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to launch a system of orbiting surveillance satellites.
According to the report, “if successful, the sources said the program would significantly advance the ability of the U.S. government and military to quickly spot potential targets almost anywhere on the globe.”
Remind me again exactly when Elon Musk bought the Twitter platform.
WASHINGTON, March 16 (Reuters) – SpaceX is building a network of hundreds of spy satellites under a classified contract with a U.S. 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 network is being built by SpaceX’s Starshield business unit under a $1.8 billion contract signed in 2021 with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), an intelligence agency that manages spy satellites, the sources said.
The plans show the extent of SpaceX’s involvement in U.S. intelligence and military projects and illustrate a deeper Pentagon investment into vast, low-Earth orbiting satellite systems aimed at supporting ground forces.
If successful, the sources said the program would significantly advance the ability of the U.S. government and military to quickly spot potential targets almost anywhere on the globe.
The contract signals growing trust by the intelligence establishment of a company whose owner has clashed with the Biden administration and sparked controversy over the use of Starlink satellite connectivity in the Ukraine war, the sources said.
The Wall Street Journal reported in February the existence of a $1.8 billion classified Starshield contract with an unknown intelligence agency without detailing the purposes of the program.
Reuters reporting 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.
Reuters was unable to determine when the new network of satellites would come online and could not establish what other companies are part of the program with their own contracts. (more)
Knowing that for a period of about ten years beginning in 2012, USG/DHS essentially operated inside the platform of Twitter for the purposes of controlling public opinion, I find it very challenging to believe the relationships with DHS, FBI, HHS and USIC – along with the Pentagon and State Dept, just ended after Musk purchased the platform.
One could make a compelling argument the purchase of Twitter held an ancillary benefit and protected the USIC from revelations that would not be controlled by any other process. Long before the “Twitter Files” were released under tight controls, the structure of Jack’s Magic Coffee shop was increasingly visible.
Beyond the Twitter Files, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed just how much control the government held over the platform. A $1.8 billion USG contract buys a lot of symbiosis and influence.
