Posted on 03/17/2024 3:11:31 AM PDT by Bratch
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.
“With the commies in office, where do you suppose it will be used?”
Exactly right.
How long before the U.S. Intelligence Agency sells it to the Chinese Communist Party ?
I didn’t read anything about Sophons...
They are keep the Sophons quiet for now. They will unfold later.
WOW sundance gets is all wrong, a launch contract is not building the NRO sats, big difference, Boeing has had a NRO launch contract for decades..
more like the slowdown is the starlink sts have gone out of range..
maybe a vpn will help
I don’t believe sundance was as interested in who manufactured the payloads as much as how the US Intelligence Agencies dropped 1.8 billion dollars in Elon’s pocket less than a year before the Twitter deal.
“more like the slowdown is the starlink sts have gone out of range..”
I first thought it was overloaded bandwidth but there is no normal load patterns such as evenings or weekends. The pattern has settled on association with keywords and topics.
I have suspected for sometime now that Musk is playing good cop/bad cop with us.
Strange he only spent a couple days at Stanford before quiting and rocketing to the top. I think he was recruited into the deep state.
“maybe a vpn will help.”
I am purposely testing the integrity and privacy of the system. I can’t do that if I hide my use.
Yep.
And you could say the same thing about all the supposed boy geniuses. More and more it looks as if the intelligence agencies were using individuals as their public face to insinuate surveillance technology into the marketplace.
We’re voluntarily acquiring the very items the government needs to control us.
“We’re voluntarily acquiring the very items the government needs to control us.”
Like Crows, shiny things and toys...
interesting i wonder how they would throttle the useage and speed.
ok good to know. I dont have starlink, but interested in what you are finding
well it was well known that musk was going to go after twitter. so who knows. but getting a govermemnt contract is a long process.
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