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BumRushDaShow

(129,017 posts)
Sat Mar 16, 2024, 03:22 PM Mar 16

Exclusive: Musk's SpaceX is building spy satellite network for US intelligence agency, sources say

Source: Reuters

March 16, 2024 11:22 AM EDT


WASHINGTON, March 16 (Reuters) - SpaceX is building a network of hundreds of spy satellites under a classified contract with a U.S. intelligence agency, five sources familiar with the program said, demonstrating deepening ties between billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's space company and national security agencies.

The network is being built by SpaceX's Starshield business unit under a $1.8 billion contract signed in 2021 with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), an intelligence agency that manages spy satellites, the sources said.

The plans show the extent of SpaceX's involvement in U.S. intelligence and military projects and illustrate a deeper Pentagon investment into vast, low-Earth orbiting satellite systems aimed at supporting ground forces.

If successful, the sources said the program would significantly advance the ability of the U.S. government and military to quickly spot potential targets almost anywhere on the globe.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/musks-spacex-is-building-spy-satellite-network-us-intelligence-agency-sources-2024-03-16/

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Roy Rolling

(6,917 posts)
14. Are You Fucking Kidding Me?
Sun Mar 17, 2024, 05:09 AM
Mar 17

U.S. taxpayers subsidize SpaceX to make Musk rich, then pay him money to use the satellites taxpayers bought?

How many Trumps can one country hold, worthless businessmen made rich by a corrupt capitalist structure?

The answer? One is too many.

Bluethroughu

(5,170 posts)
15. Yes, business has sucked the wealth from the middle class for 40 years.
Sun Mar 17, 2024, 11:23 AM
Mar 17

Labor is rising.
Organizing.
And we will win for the majority.

Eloon should be arrested. He allowed Russia access to those satellites, and they used it against Ukraine. I'm tired of these so called masters of the Universe that have built their wealth and monopolies off the backs of the working class, like those of our history.

We need to enforce the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and tax them into reality.

Attilatheblond

(2,171 posts)
3. Back in the mid 90s, NPR did report on the US military contractors who outsourced much of the computer chips
Sat Mar 16, 2024, 03:50 PM
Mar 16

needed for the guidance system of missiles the DOD ordered for our stockpile of weapons. The manufacture of these critical components for the missile guidance was outsourced to a company IN CHINA.

Allowing for the likelihood of backdoors into critical systems seem like a good way for some capitalists to make some extra coin. We know Musk is really a man without a country. It's damned foolish to trust him with anything that is sensitive.

BumRushDaShow

(129,017 posts)
6. "Back in the mid 90s, NPR did report on the US military contractors who outsourced much of the computer chips"
Sat Mar 16, 2024, 04:15 PM
Mar 16

You can go back farther than that with faux pas like that, e.g., the U.S. Embassy in Russia -

U.S. EMBASSY IN MOSCOW TO BE RAZED
'BUGGED' BUILDING WILL BE REPLACED


By David B. Ottaway
December 20, 1989 at 7:00 p.m. EST


Secretary of State James A. Baker III yesterday informed Congress that the Bush administration has decided to demolish and rebuild entirely the security-compromised U.S. embassy chancery in Moscow at an estimated cost of $270 million. "After careful review, we have concluded that to tear down the existing, uncompleted new structure and rebuild it in place is the preferable approach," Baker said in a letter Tuesday to Sen. David L. Boren (D-Okla.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. "That alternative offers, in our view, the most practical combination of security, space, cost and time compared with the other options that were under active review," Baker added.

There had been strong congressional pressure to raze the structure and rebuild. The decision ends a nearly two-year battle between two administrations and Congress about what to do with the nearly completed embassy chancery building in Moscow whose walls and ceilings were found to have been riddled with electronic surveillance devices. Baker noted in his letter that the issue had been left unresolved "for much too long" and that to leave it "festering" was "not in keeping with the changing nature of our relationship with the Soviet Union."

Boren and Sen. William S. Cohen (R-Maine), vice chaiman of the Senate intelligence committee, issued a statement praising the administration's decision to tear down all eight floors of the chancery building. They said it signaled an administration commitment to a more effective national counter-intelligence program and that changes now underway in the Soviet Union made it "even more important to have fully secure facilities and adequate space." The Senate intelligence committee and the House international operations subcommittee had strongly recommended in April 1987 that the chancery be demolished. The Reagan administration finally agreed to this approach just before it left office.

The Bush administration, however, initially was reluctant to go along with razing, seeking to avoid the high cost and considerable additional time that will be required to put up an entirely new chancery. It concluded that the most efficient way to proceed would be simply to build a new, secure section of several stories atop all or part of the existing structure. But this idea was abandoned, according to one senior official, because of the strong public commitment of Boren, Cohen and other key congressional leaders to building a totally new chancery. A U.S. official said the estimated cost of the project would be $270 million, "plus or minus 25 percent," and congressional sources said it would take "approximately three years" to complete the project. Rebuilding the chancery will also require new negotiations of the 1972 agreement on conditions of construction with the Soviets to assure that American materials and workmen alone are used to rebuild the chancery.

(snip)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1989/12/21/us-embassy-in-moscow-to-be-razed/ffbd0a03-41b6-4081-9b45-b3ea67d15ed0/

keopeli

(3,522 posts)
4. This contract is contemporaneous with the turning of Musk. I feel very uneasy about this partnership.
Sat Mar 16, 2024, 03:54 PM
Mar 16

It reminds me of the infamous Blackwater. Musk is NOT a patriot. He's an immigrant who bashes immigrants. He is NOT a friend of Ukraine. His idea of free speech is to let Hitler talk all he wants. What could possibly go wrong?

Once our government started outsourcing its primary responsibilities to for-profit capitalists, we were set on the path of self-destruction. Our military has been leading the way, outsourcing to Eric Prince and Elon Musk and Dick Cheney. I'm fearful of the unseen consequences of this naive approach. I just hope we are not too far gone when the dubious nature of our error is finally realized. It may be too late already.

slightlv

(2,801 posts)
10. It's not a naive approach...
Sat Mar 16, 2024, 09:43 PM
Mar 16

I contend it's been a very aware, discriminating point for those who back it. Not to mention, profitable for them.

keopeli

(3,522 posts)
12. You make a good point. The naive ones are the "third way" dems who went along with this racket. (Many of them, anyway.)
Sat Mar 16, 2024, 09:45 PM
Mar 16

SamKnause

(13,106 posts)
8. You took some of the words out of my mouth.
Sat Mar 16, 2024, 05:10 PM
Mar 16

I was going to type, Geez what the fuck could possibly go wrong ???

At this point everything in this country is being sold to the highest bidders.

One giant fucking monopoly.

slightlv

(2,801 posts)
11. Thank you, people!
Sat Mar 16, 2024, 09:44 PM
Mar 16

I read this and was flabbergasted at how stupid this idea was... especially with whom they're dealing. I was afraid maybe I was being too paranoid. I'm so glad to see I'm not the only one who feels towards this idea like I do!

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