Elon Musk's SpaceX plans to forge closer ties with the U.S. military and intelligence agencies and expand government contracts, including a secret project known as Starshield, The Wall Street Journal reported.

SpaceX has surpassed the U.S. military and other commercial companies to become the leader in the space launch race, and its success has attracted the attention of key U.S. military and intelligence agencies. according to To the outlet. StarShield is just one example of the growing relationship between the commercial and government sectors, supplying government customers with satellites capable of securely communicating with and collecting data from various types of observation units, WSJ reported in 2022. The report cited a website released in 2017.

The StarShield division focuses on government customers and avoids publicly advertising its existence, according to the Journal. The company signed a $70 million contract with the Department of Defense in August to provide communications services. (Related: Blinken calls for cooperation from China and India to stop Russia's space nuclear weapons: report)

StarShield's management team also includes Air Force Gen. Terrence O'Shaughnessy, who retired in 2020, a person familiar with the matter told the Journal. His biography on an industry website describes him as “senior advisor to Elon Musk on SpaceX matters” and vice president of the special programs group.

“When you don't know what to say in public, you tend to compress it. But I can tell you that there is a very good working relationship between the intelligence community and SpaceX,” said SpaceX President and CEO Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said this at an event in May 2023, WSJ reported.

Shotwell plays a key role in forging connections between SpaceX and national security agencies within the U.S. government, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the effort.

SpaceX signed a secret $1.8 billion contract with an undisclosed US agency in 2021, WSJ reports, suggesting the money from the deal will be a key source of revenue for Musk's company for years to come. The company cited corporate documents seen by the same media.

Another example, even more sensitive, is a contract with the National Reconnaissance Office, an intelligence agency tasked with collecting and analyzing satellite data for customers across the federal government, according to sources familiar with the Journal. It was reported as a story. It was unclear exactly which SpaceX technology the NRO was using.

“We are deepening our relationships with other government agencies, the private sector, academia and other countries,” an NRO spokesperson told the Journal.

According to WSJ, satellites serve U.S. national security needs by performing tasks such as tracking missile launches, providing protected communications links, and painting pictures of events happening on the ground with cameras and sensors. They say they are responding.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon is changing its thinking about satellite capabilities. Citing companies like SpaceX and Starlink (Musk's efforts to provide broadband internet service anywhere in the world by deploying thousands of small, expendable, and inexpensive satellites) as examples, the Pentagon has The company wants to move away from its previous trend of launching expensive satellites with little traffic. It favors a more distributed constellation, which makes it very complex.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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