SpaceX Announces Starshield Satellite For Military Use; Spying On Earthlings?

Photo Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX has taken the wraps off a new project dubbed Starshield -- a satellite project specifically crafted for “government use," as per the company’s website. The new satellite will be benefiting from Elon Musk’s existing Starlink constellation in an attempt to "support national security efforts."

The Starshield satellite will be keeping a close eye on Earth alongside hosting any payload that government agencies and the military might require. This could spark questions about the expanding militarization of space.

SpaceX Producing Spy Sats?

Simply put, with the new Starshield satellite, SpaceX has secured a place in the US military industrial complex that has a reputation for launching classified payloads into space.

SpaceX hasn’t revealed a lot about its new venture in military satellites, although an illustration on its websites suggests the sats will be spying on earthlings. SpaceX also claims the sats will pack "additional high-assurance cryptographic capability to host classified payloads and process data securely" to keep military operations a secret.

Growing Starlink Network

Starshield satellites will be capable of linking to Starlink’s communication network by leveraging "inter-satellite laser communications." SpaceX has deployed 3,200 Starlink satellites into low-earth orbit and also has the Federal Communications Commission’s nod to launch 10,000 more first-gen satellites.

By fully establishing itself as a military contractor, it seems like SpaceX has more wicked goals than just peacefully exploring the Moon and then Mars in the coming years. The space company is also working closely with NASA for several space exploration missions.

Starlink Losing Blazing Fast Tag

Internet speed testing website Ookla, in its report, suggested that with the growing number of people on SpaceX’s Starlink internet subscription, the service is losing its edge over rivals in terms of speeds. The report concluded that Starlink users in the US and Canada saw a huge decline in their download speeds due to the congestion caused by more people opting for the services in the area.

"Starlink speeds decreased in every country we surveyed over the past year as more users sign up for service," the Ookla report says, drawing on data from Speedtest.net. The report shows that median download speeds saw a decline between 5 to 54 percent from Q2 2021 to Q2 2022 in the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, and New Zealand.