SpaceX to Launch 'Starshield' For National Security Use Elon Musk's SpaceX brings to light a new broadband service for customers worldwide through its Starlink constellation. The company shared that Starlink has now started a project named Starshield which can be used by government agencies especially the sectors such as national security.
By Kavya Pillai
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Elon Musk's SpaceX brings to light a new broadband service for customers worldwide through its Starlink constellation. The company shared that Starlink has now started a project named Starshield which can be used by government agencies especially the sectors such as national security.
The new post on SpaceX read, "Starshield leverages SpaceX's Starlink technology and launch capability to support national security efforts". Further adding, "While Starlink is designed for consumer and commercial use, Starshield is designed for government use, with an initial focus on three areas". The three areas of focus are Earth observation, communications and hosted payloads.
Starshield is designed to offer higher security levels than Starlink that feature, "additional high-assurance cryptographic capability to host classified payloads and process data securely, meeting the most demanding government requirements' '. The Starsheild spacecraft will be incorporated into other satellites that have been equipped with the laser-communications terminal which is used by Starlink craft.
About Starlink, their megaconstellation includes 3,200 active satellites that grow considerably larger in time. The SpaceX team has received permission from the US federal Communications Commission (FCC) for deploying 12,000 first-generation Starlink crafts, which is currently operating in low Earth orbit.
SpaceX has applied for approval for nearly 30,000 Starlink 2.0 satellites additionally. The new spacecrafts which would be launched would use the next-generation Starship rocket. Their plans for the coming year include having the Starlink 2.0 satellite directly beam to cell phones.
Currently, FCC is reserving judgment on the remaining applications after having approved the deployment of 7,500 Starlink 2.0 crafts.
