Northrop Grumman Working With SpaceX On US Spy Satellite System (reuters.com) 10
Longtime Slashdot reader SonicSpike shares a report from Reuters: Aerospace and defense company Northrop Grumman is working with SpaceX [...] on a classified spy satellite project already capturing high-resolution imagery of the Earth, according to people familiar with the program. The program, details of which were first reported by Reuters last month, is meant to enhance the U.S. government's ability to track military and intelligence targets from low-Earth orbits, providing high-resolution imagery of a kind that had traditionally been captured mostly by drones and reconnaissance aircraft. The inclusion of Northrop Grumman, which has not been previously reported, reflects a desire among government officials to avoid putting too much control of a highly-sensitive intelligence program in the hands of one contractor, four people familiar with the project told Reuters. 'It is in the government's interest to not be totally invested in one company run by one person,' one of the people said.
It's unclear whether other contractors are involved at present or could join the project as it develops. Northrop Grumman is providing sensors for some of the SpaceX satellites, the people familiar with the project told Reuters. Northrop Grumman, two of the people added, will test those satellites at its own facilities before they are launched. At least 50 of the SpaceX satellites are expected at Northrop Grumman facilities for procedures including testing and the installation of sensors in coming years, one of the people said. In March, Reuters reported that the National Reconnaissance Office, or NRO, in 2021 awarded a $1.8 billion contract to SpaceX for the classified project, a planned network of hundreds of satellites. So far, the people familiar with the project said, SpaceX has launched roughly a dozen prototypes and is already providing test imagery to the NRO, an intelligence agency that oversees development of U.S. spy satellites.
It's unclear whether other contractors are involved at present or could join the project as it develops. Northrop Grumman is providing sensors for some of the SpaceX satellites, the people familiar with the project told Reuters. Northrop Grumman, two of the people added, will test those satellites at its own facilities before they are launched. At least 50 of the SpaceX satellites are expected at Northrop Grumman facilities for procedures including testing and the installation of sensors in coming years, one of the people said. In March, Reuters reported that the National Reconnaissance Office, or NRO, in 2021 awarded a $1.8 billion contract to SpaceX for the classified project, a planned network of hundreds of satellites. So far, the people familiar with the project said, SpaceX has launched roughly a dozen prototypes and is already providing test imagery to the NRO, an intelligence agency that oversees development of U.S. spy satellites.
Starlink (Score:2)
It's a no-brainer to attach down-facing high-resolution cameras to Starlink satellites. The only question is do you want gigapixel resolution or what? With 50 gigapixels you can image the 20,000 square mile Starlink satellite footrprint with 1 meter resolution (enough to detect a car parked outside someplace).The bandwidth requirements, even if they only show difference information, will be too high to transmit all the data but they could do it smarter. From that you can trace backwards any crime or non-cri
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Starlink (Score:4, Informative)
It's a no-brainer to attach down-facing high-resolution cameras to Starlink satellites.
It's a lot more difficult than that, I think. The outdated Keyhole spy satellites that were donated to NASA were about Hubble-sized, with a ~2.4m primary mirror, if I'm not mistaken, and higher resolution would require larger mirrors, so it's not just a tiny DSLR glued on the bottom of a starlink satellite. On top of that, imaging and communications (especially with the laser links) may have opposing requirements where the satellite is pointing. I'd assume that those are entirely separate satellites, possibly using Starlink for downlink.
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However if you are closer to the earth then you don't need as such a big primary mirror.
That said I suspect they are eyeing up launches on SuperHeavy/StarShip where much larger primary mirrors could be used. I mean an 8m primary is entirely feasible though one suspects atmospheric turbulence will be the limiting factor. Then again they could deploy adaptive optics.
Re:Starlink (Score:5, Interesting)
Without quality optics, you'll just end up with 50 gigapixels of blur. More pixels doesn't necessarily mean you can resolve finer features.
For comparison, Planet Labs is deploying its Pelican [planet.com] telescope constellation. These are the size of a small refrigerator (0.6 x 0.6 x 1.0 m), and roughly half of that is devoted to the optics. Planet Labs advertise 30-cm resolution with that platform, but the first prototypes only went up a few months ago - I don't know if real data is available yet.
Another comparison is "What If [xkcd.com] You Pointed [esahubble.org] Hubble at Earth [badastronomy.com]"? (Since Hubble is more or less a spy satellite, modestly redesigned for astronomy.) The diffraction limit puts the resolution at 0.2 m - not quite enough for license plates. But atmospheric effects alone would worsen that significantly. Then there's motion blur - the telescope has to slew to keep the object centered in the field of view. Even if it did so perfectly, you're still viewing the object from different angles during the camera exposure. A telescope in Pelican's form factor (0.5 m, cubed) doesn't jibe well with the flat-pack configuration of Starlink (about 0.2 m thick), let alone a Hubble.
But that's not to say that NRO hasn't asked SpaceX (and contractors) for their own design. There's a reason why the SpaceX camera feed cuts out before fairing separation.
Two companies with a history of... (Score:2)
In 1998 a NG subsidiary was found to have sold source code from Air Force One's navigation systems to Russia.
In 1999 they knowingly sold the Navy defective aircrafts and paid $325 million to settle the case.
In 2001 they were the target of a probe about systematic overcharging on aircraft components and paid a $
Re: Two companies with a history of... (Score:2)
Set the two companies up in a prisoners' dilemma -- they each make $50 million for launching satellites but if one catches the other spying, the spy gets nothing and the snitch gets $500 million.
OMG (Score:2)
OMG, employees at SpaceX will have to do a sit-in to protest! Maybe superglue themselves to the launch pad.
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Who trusts Musk? (Score:2)
Does anyone trust Musk enough to have full access to a spy satellite system like this?