Satellites, what Elon Musk’s SpaceX will do for the Pentagon
Elon Musk's SpaceX has won a $ 149 million contract to build the Pentagon's satellites
SpaceX took home its first government contract to build satellites on Monday. The aerospace company founded by Elon Musk will build four satellites under the United States Space Development Agency (SDA) contract. The agency announced yesterday .
As Reuters points out , SpaceX is ramping up production of satellites for Starlink , a growing constellation of hundreds of Internet-broadcasting satellites that Musk hopes will generate enough revenue to help fund SpaceX's interplanetary goals.
The contract is part of the first phase of the SDA to acquire satellites to detect and track missiles such as intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), which can travel long distances and are difficult to track and intercept.
THE CONTRACT WITH THE PENTAGON
Under the contract, SpaceX will use its Starlink assembly plant in Redmond, Washington, to build four satellites equipped with a wide-angle infrared missile tracking sensor supplied by a subcontractor. An SDA official explained.
TOGETHER WITH COMPANY L3 HARRIS
US technology company L3Harris Technologies also received $ 193 million to build four more satellites for the SDA. Both companies are expected to deliver satellites for launch by autumn 2022.
SPACEX'S CONTRACTS WITH THE PENTAGON
As Business Insider points out, this isn't the first contract SpaceX has won from the Pentagon. Last August it won part of a billion dollar deal with the Department of Defense to launch new rockets for the Space Force. The SDA is expected to join the Space Force by October 2022.
THE STARLINK NETWORK
In 2019, SpaceX also received $ 28 million from the Air Force to use the fledgling Starlink satellite network to test encrypted Internet services with a range of military aircraft, although the Air Force has not ordered any Starlink satellites of its own.
THE LAST SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH
Meanwhile, today Elon Musk also celebrates another milestone. Successful launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket that brought 60 other Starlink satellites into orbit as part of the mission of the same name. Today's launch continues Elon Musk's project to build a global low-latency broadband satellite internet network.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/satelliti-che-cosa-fara-spacex-di-elon-musk-per-il-pentagono/ on Tue, 06 Oct 2020 06:05:58 +0000.