On Wednesday ‘SpaceX’ launched an inaugural batch of operational spy satellites it made as part of a new U.S. intelligence network designed to enhance the country’s space-based surveillance powers, the first deployment of many more planned this year.
The spy network was declared in a pair earlier this year showing SpaceX is making hundreds of satellites for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, an intelligence agency, for a system in orbit capable of spotting ground targets almost anywhere in the world.
Northrop Grumman, a defense contractor, is also involved in the project. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Southern California at 4 a.m. EDT on Wednesday.
NRO said it was the first launch of the NRO’s proliferated systems featuring collection and data delivery.” ‘Approximately half a dozen launches supporting NRO’s proliferated architecture are planned for 2024, with additional launches expected through 2028’, said the agency.
Around the world militaries and intelligence agencies have increasingly relied on satellites in Earth’s orbit to aid operations on Earth.
The satellite network for the NRO also shows the extent to which the U.S. government has come to rely on Elon Musk’s SpaceX for some of its most sensitive missions.
The company has dominated the U.S. rocket launch market and has become the world’s largest satellite operator with its Starlink network, a commercial system of thousands of broadband internet satellites.
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