Musk’s SpaceX embraces US Defense and Services. Report Wsj
Here's how SpaceX, Elon Musk's aerospace company, transformed itself from a space rocket company to a major national security contractor. The Wall Street Journal report.
SpaceX is strengthening its ties with U.S. military and intelligence agencies, winning at least one major classified contract and expanding a secret corporate satellite program called Starshield for national security customers.
The Elon Musk-led company has entered into a confidential $1.8 billion contract with the US government in 2021, according to company documents seen by The Wall Street Journal. SpaceX said in the documents that funds from the contract are expected to become an important part of its revenue mix in the coming years. It did not disclose the name of the government client.
THE INTERDEPENDENCE BETWEEN SPACEX AND THE NATIONAL SECURITY APPARATUS
The size and secrecy of the deal illustrate the growing interdependence between SpaceX – a dominant force in the space industry – and the national security establishment.
SpaceX's work for U.S. defense customers has long included launching military and secret satellites. More recently the Pentagon has done business with SpaceX's Starlink broadband service, including deals to pay for Ukraine's internet connections during its war with Russia.
WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT STARSHIELD
Less is known about SpaceX's Starshield unit, which was tailor-made for government customers and counts a former Air Force general among its executives. Last August, Starshield won a $70 million award from the military to provide communications services to dozens of Pentagon partners. However, the group operated largely away from the public eye.
“When I'm not sure what I can say in a public forum, I tend not to. But I can say that there is a great collaboration between the intelligence community and SpaceX,” said Gwynne Shotwell, president of the company, during an event held last May.
SPACEX COMMUNICATION
On a web page made public in late 2022, SpaceX described Starshield as a provider of satellites that can handle secure communications, acquire data on Earth, or carry sensors or other observation tools for the government while in orbit.
Starshield's online job postings sought people with top-secret clearances and experience working with the Department of Defense and intelligence community.
One of the posted positions calls for the person in charge to represent Starshield at the Pentagon's combatant commands, which are the divisions that oversee military operations around the world or specific functions, such as transportation and cybersecurity.
A SpaceX spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
THE EVOLUTION OF ELON MUSK'S AEROSPACE COMPANY
SpaceX has partnered with national security organizations since its inception. Shortly after Musk founded it in 2002, the company won a launch contract with a secret U.S. intelligence client, the Journal reported nearly two decades ago. Later, SpaceX began managing regular launches for military and intelligence agencies.
The company has also landed major national security customers for its satellite technologies, a different set of offerings from SpaceX's traditional work launching satellites for these customers. One such client is the National Reconnaissance Office, according to people familiar with the matter.
NRO AMONG CUSTOMERS
Headquartered in a sprawling office park south of Dulles International Airport, the NRO draws personnel from several branches of the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency, which uses satellite data to support the federal government's national security and civilian agencies . Its existence was a government secret until 1992.
It could not be determined what satellite technology SpaceX used.
An NRO spokesperson said the agency develops intelligence products with a number of partners. “We are deepening our relationships with other government agencies, the private sector, academia and other nations,” the spokesperson said.
MUSK'S BACKGROUND
Musk, who also heads Tesla, social media company X and other ventures, comes from a Silicon Valley background that sets him apart from the leaders of most military contractors. SpaceX's Shotwell, however, has played a significant role in building the company's relationships with national security agencies, people familiar with those efforts said.
ATTRACTIVE SERVICES FOR GOVERNMENT BODIES
SpaceX executives have touted the company's capabilities to government buyers, highlighting its ability to quickly produce satellites and, using its partially reusable rockets, launch them into low Earth orbit at a cadence that rivals can't match. Executives at agencies that work closely with SpaceX have lauded the company's technology as sophisticated and its style as agile.
ALSO A FORMER AIR FORCE GENERAL IN THE TEAM
General Terrence O'Shaughnessy [pictured with Musk in 2019], who joined SpaceX after retiring from the Air Force in 2020, had a senior role at Starshield, people familiar with the matter said . A biography posted on a trade group's website describes him as "senior advisor to Elon Musk on SpaceX matters" and vice president of the company's Special Programs group.
He and others have urged the defense establishment to learn from the example of more agile space startups. Last year, O'Shaughnessy compared how SpaceX developed Starlink to a government effort to create a similar but much smaller fleet. The latter “looks a lot like Starlink,” he said during a conference. “And yet they are looking for a couple of hundred satellites in orbit.”
THE STARLINK CASE
About a decade after Musk said SpaceX would develop a satellite Internet business to sell high-speed Internet connections to consumers and businesses, the company operates the world's largest fleet, with about 5,400 satellites in operation at half February. These devices power Starlink, marketed for civilian use.
IN THE MEANWHILE SPACE IS BECOMING MORE AND MORE STRATEGIC
SpaceX's growing importance to the U.S. government comes as space increasingly becomes a contested arena that mirrors geopolitical rivalries on Earth. China is increasing its space capabilities. Russia has ambitions to develop a space-based nuclear weapon that could be used to strike satellites, US officials said this month.
THE ROLE OF SATELLITES
Satellites play an important role in U.S. national security by tracking missile launches and providing secure communications. Others monitor activities on the ground using cameras or sensors.
Some space leaders at the Pentagon want to avoid ordering powerful but large satellites, which could take a decade to build and launch. Instead, they say, they want contractors to quickly launch swarms of satellites that can remain operational when other systems fail. Officials are planning an aggressive pace of military and spy satellite launches in the coming years.
“I think speed in space acquisition is a very simple formula: Build small, use existing technology and reduce non-recurring engineering,” said Frank Calvelli, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition and space integration, in a speech given in late 2022. “Commercial capabilities are exploited.”
THE IMPORTANCE OF STARLINK IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICT
SpaceX's ability to quickly build and launch satellites was on display during Ukraine's fight against Russia. Since the early days of the war, the company's Starlink satellite network has supported the communications of Ukrainian civil society and troops.
The report also generated tensions. SpaceX's Shotwell said last year that the company had taken steps to limit Ukrainian troops' use of the satellite for direct military engagements. This month, Ukraine's top military intelligence officer said Russian invading forces are using thousands of Starlink terminals in occupied Ukrainian territory to access Internet services.
Musk said that, to SpaceX's knowledge, no Starlink terminals have been sold directly or indirectly to Russia. Starlink said SpaceX takes steps to deactivate the terminals if the company determines that sanctioned or unauthorized parties are using them.
(Excerpt from the foreign press review by Epr Comunicazione)
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/spacex-di-musk-abbraccia-difesa-e-servizi-usa-report-wsj/ on Sun, 25 Feb 2024 06:30:19 +0000.