SpaceX has teamed up with military-industrial corporation Northrop Grumman to create low-orbit satellites for the US Department of Defense, allowing for high-definition images of the Earth’s surface, the quality of which can be compared with the images obtained by flying drones. Reuters reports this.
We are talking about the development of a system of hundreds of reconnaissance spacecraft, which SpaceX is working on. Northrop Grumman’s participation in the project is explained by the need to use a number of sensitive technologies, in particular, special sensors that the US authorities do not want to transfer into the hands of one company. “It is in the government’s interest not to invest entirely in one company run by one person,” one of the news agency’s sources said.
Reuters writes that in the near future Northrop Grumman will receive at least 50 secret satellites from SpaceX for testing and retrofitting with special equipment.
In December 2022, Defense News reported that SpaceX had created a new business unit, the Starshield division, within which it plans to interact with the US Department of Defense. As part of Starshield, users from the US national security sector can count on “additional highly secure cryptographic capabilities” for secure processing and transmission of data based on Starlink satellite technology, as well as the creation and launch of new spacecraft for communications and observation of the Earth’s surface.
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2024-04-20 01:02:08