Elon Musk’s SpaceX is expanding its Starlink satellite technology into military applications with a new business line called Starshield.
Starshield is likely to further tap the company’s biggest US government customer, the Pentagon, which already represents a high-value buyer of SpaceX’s launches and has shown significant interest in the capabilities of Starlink.
“While Starlink is designed for consumer and commercial use, Starshield is designed for government use,” the company said in a statement.
On its website SpaceX said the system will have an initial focus on three areas: earth observation, communications and hosted payloads.
The company also marketed Starshield as the center of an “end-to-end” offering for national security: SpaceX would build everything from the ground antennas to the satellites, launch the latter with its rockets, and operate the network in space.
SpaceX notes that Starshield uses “additional high-assurance cryptographic capability to host classified payloads and process data securely,” building upon the data encryption it uses with its Starlink system.
Another key feature are the “inter-satellite laser communications” links, which the company currently has connecting its Starlink spacecraft.
It noted that the terminals can be added to “partner satellites,” so as to connect other companies’ government systems “into the Starshield network.”
SpaceX continues to build out its Starlink system, with the company last week winning key FCC approval for expansion. The company’s leadership has previously estimated that Starlink could bring in as much as $30 billion in revenue a year.
But Starshield represents a step beyond commercial markets.
The Pentagon has already made clear that it’s willing to spend heavily to have companies build out next-generation satellite capabilities.