SpaceX is reportedly building hundreds of spy satellites for the US government

catculation@lemmy.zip to Technology@lemmy.world – 180 points –
SpaceX is reportedly building hundreds of spy satellites for the US government
engadget.com
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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.

Probably a lot from star link business but separately, launching a government satellite does not give you continued access to that satellite's business.

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.

They are just finally moving on from getting fleeced by the traditional massive defense contractors. Starlink satellites are an extremely cool piece of engineering, and spaceX is one of the most impressive engineering companies in the world. I'm sure these spy sats they are making are fairly advanced