SpaceX Secures $1.8 Billion Classified Contract with U.S. Intelligence, Military

Eugene Park 2024-02-22 PM 08:58 Views

(Brownsville, Reuters=News1) By reporter Park Jae-ha, Elon Musk’s space company, SpaceX’s giant spaceship for Mars exploration, “Starship,” is set to embark on its first Earth orbit test flight on the 17th (local time). The photo shows Starship installed at the “Starbase” space launch facility in Texas, USA, the day before (16th). ⓒ Reuters=News1 Copyright (C) News1. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction and redistribution are prohibited.

Reports have emerged that SpaceX, a space company founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, is strengthening cooperation with U.S. security agencies.

On the 20th (local time), the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that SpaceX had signed a confidential contract worth $1.8 billion with the U.S. government in 2021. The WSJ added that it verified the contract with its acquired documents.

In these documents, SpaceX predicted that the funds from the contract with the U.S. security agency would account for a significant portion of the company’s revenue over the next few years. The name of the government agency contracted in this document was not specified.

The WSJ analyzed, “The scale and confidentiality of the contract show that the interdependence between SpaceX, a leader of the space industry, and national security agencies is growing.”

Previously, SpaceX had also signed a $70 million contract to provide the military satellite service “Starshield” to the U.S. Department of Defense’s Space Force. SpaceX stated that it performs tasks such as secure communication, data collection, and transportation of observation sensors and equipment for the U.S. government through the Starshield project.

Meanwhile, SpaceX, where Musk is CEO, is currently the only U.S. company approved to send NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Last year, SpaceX launched about half of the world’s satellites.