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SpaceX building spy satellites for US Government, report says

• bell-cot 3y ago
  > SpaceX is "building a network of hundreds of spy satellites" for a US intelligence agency under a $1.8 billion contract signed in 2021, ... Not an expert, but isn't $1.8B sofa-cushion money when it comes to spy satellites? The article notes that another company will provide some of the sensors for the satellites, but still...
  • getcrunk 3y ago
    Spacex has really brought the cost down to get to orbit and so you can throw up 100s or small satellites for that amount of money probably. Unprecedented levels of coverage
    • bell-cot 3y ago
      Even assuming a mere 7 Falcon 9 launches (to get some variety of orbits) and 350 satellites - that'd be (using some Starlink numbers, and a supposed Falcon 9 list price) ~300kg satellites, and $3.8M per satellite - R&D and manufacturing - to squeak in under the $1.8B budget. (Or supposed budget...) Vs. Tomahawk cruise missiles supposedly have a unit cost of $2M each. And over 80 of those (one-shot, expendable) missiles were launched in just one day recently, against Houthi targets involved in the current Red Sea conflict.
  • wmf 3y ago
    $1.8B is less than the cost of a single KH-11. These Starshield satellites necessarily have lower resolution since they aren't large enough to contain a Hubble-sized telescope but there are more of them, presumably providing fresher imagery.