SpaceX is reportedly building a $1.8 billion network of spy satellites for US intelligence

He's already selling to both sides with Starlink. Who is to say Musk won't be doing the same with this? He's really playing up the Bond Villain stereotype.

root password: "putin6969"
- In the recent Musk biography it was said that at some point after a meeting with NASA he changed his laptop password to “ilovenasa” so you’re not far off in terms of terrible password security if the story is accurate.
I'm getting Deus Ex vibes
- I spill my drink!
A lot wrong here, I'm sorry to say, and I'm really not a fan of Musk. He is absolutely not selling Starlink to be used by Russia. That would be shut down real quick. (They may be using black-market terminals, but that's a different question.) And this new constellation will, as I understand it, be owned and operated by the US govt. Think like every single spy satellite ever: govt finds a contractor and asks them to do a thing.
- Oh, right. They couldnt possibly make another and sell that to someone else, oh wait...
root password "putin6969"
You're (probably knowingly) spreading disinformation if you're implying SpaceX is selling Starlink terminals to Russia. You have no moral standing to criticize them if you yourself are spreading lies.
- It's not disinformation at all. Russians are using Starlink on the battlefield. SpaceX knew, and didn't report it. Russians continue to use it without any remediation from SpaceX yet. That sure as shit meets the bare minimum in my book as complicity.
  
  Why are you on here being a fence or fact checker for Russia and SpaceX anyway? Fuck Russia, and Fuck Elon Musk.
- Eat shit bootlicker
Would you rather he, as a non-government affiliated citizen, pick a side? War is stupid. Communication is great. Maybe this is naive of me, but I think the world would be better, and maybe require less war, if everyone had equal access to communication.
- The fuck are you talking about? These are surveillance satellites, not some unity communications empowering satellites or something.
- Maybe this is naive of me
  
  It really is. We're not discussing the philosophy of free and open communication, we're talking about a single narcissist who has been given money and power and how that's a problem.
- I would rather they fund NASA to the fullest, and nationalize SpaceX under them.
- Communications are important, which is why they're one of the number one things an invader disrupts upon invasion: communications systems. Disrupting your enemies communications is incredibly common and to act like simply because Musk is "offering communications" means he's a good guy is such a simplistic fucking take I want to blow my brains out.
  
  Maybe you should read some McLuhan or some Debord.
- Musk is a massive POS that cannot be trusted to maintain equal access to that communication.
  
  What don't you grasp about that?
- Would you rather he, as a non-government affiliated citizen, pick a side? War is stupid. Communication is great. Maybe this is naive of me, but I think the world would be better, and maybe require less war, if everyone had equal access to communication.
  
  I recently read about Ted Hall who shared nuclear secrets with the Soviet Union because he thought everyone should have equal access to nuclear weapons and this would prevent another world war.
  
  Your logic is similar and it's not a good thing.
- Dumb ass thing to say

Seems problematic, considering what a fuckwad musk is.

Seems like after his satellite shenanigans in Ukraine, the US would be more.. cautious.

Or there is more to that story than we know as the general public.
- That this whole war is orchestrated by the deep state which has private corporations as a branch of government just like every other war waged since WWII (the last real war)?
  
  Literally why is anybody shocked?
This. Musk disabled Starlink to fark over the Ukrainians. He should not be trusted with any military contracts. Ever.

Having mega corporations design space networks for you sounds like a great idea until they decide to lock you out and hold your government hostage. Or sell intel… Or sell access to other actors….

Just admit it—the corporations run the world at this point.

Nah, part of this is specifically that the US government owns it. This isn't SpaceX just providing access. Think of the US government buying an F-35 or something.

I imagine that might be because they want to do things with it that'd be riskier than what SpaceX does with SpaceX's constellation -- i.e. adversaries might aim to dick it up.
- Really just sounds like they are deploying government equipment. There is no report of it being hardware built by spaceX. That is all speculation and clickbait m.
  
  The company makes money by delivering payloads to space. In the end they are a delivery company moving packages from point A to point B.
  
  That the US government would use this service seems obvious. SpaceX is well known for profiting off government funds.

straight up supervillain shit, as always

Just spitballing here, but it will get hacked and cause a major problem, if not a crisis.

There are numerous spy satellites up there already from many nations, any of them being hacked would be just as bad.

The DoD is going to be involved in how they are secured.
They'll probably all drop out of orbit before that happens though. I give it a week from launch.
- The more ridiculous, the more plausible, because it has happened. 😂

" . . . for U.S. intelligence."

Yeah. Sure. Right. Musk will sell Intelligence to ANYONE who pays for it and US taxpayers will foot the entire bill for constructing the satellite network.

And then all the contractors and politicians will all pretend to be surprised by this and Musk will get the finger-wagging of a lifetime.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

SpaceX’s Starshield unit has had a classified contract with the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) since 2021 to build a network of “hundreds” of spy satellites for the agency, Reuters reports today, citing unnamed sources “familiar with the program.”

A Wall Street Journal report in February listed a classified $1.8 billion SpaceX contract with a then-unnamed government agency.

Now Reuters has attached a name, and that it’s to build a network of “hundreds of satellites bearing Earth-imaging capabilities that can operate as a swarm in low orbits.”

SpaceX describes Starshield as a government-focused secure satellite network, and Elon Musk tweeted it “will be owned by the US government and controlled by DoD Space Force.” Last fall, the business unit signed a US Space Force contract to provide satellite communications for the military via Starlink.

According to Reuters, if the NRO contract is a success, it would “significantly advance the ability of the U.S. government and military to quickly spot potential targets almost anywhere on the globe.

While an NRO spokesperson reportedly declined to comment on Reuters findings about SpaceX’s involvement, it confirmed to the outlet that it’s working to develop “the most capable, diverse, and resilient space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system the world has ever seen.”

The original article contains 255 words, the summary contains 207 words. Saved 19%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Sounds like this is a tack on to starlink. Could make sense to put low quality cameras on starlink to prevent a-sat shoot downs since there are so many starlink sats. You'd need to do a complete Kessler syndrome leo denial to economically knock them all out.

I bet this leads to Musk getting outed by more of his own companies, lol.