US ‘militarising space’ with Musk satellite network
PLA Daily warns that deal with SpaceX unit poses huge security challenges
The official newspaper of China’s military has accused the United States of “militarising space” by building a spy satellite network with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, causing “huge challenges” for the security of “other countries”.
The Starshield unit of Musk’s space business is reportedly developing a constellation of hundreds of low-Earth-orbit satellites that would allow the US military to “quickly spot potential targets almost anywhere on the globe”.
According to Reuters, Starshield and the National Reconnaissance Office, a US intelligence agency that manages spy satellites signed a classified US$1.8 billion contract in 2021.
In the Ukraine and Gaza wars, advanced satellite communication has provided military advantages, opening up a new arena for US-China tech rivalry.
A commentary in military mouthpiece PLA Daily yesterday said such a network of satellites could “warn and intercept missiles and control unmanned combat platforms remotely”, and could play “an extremely important role on the battlefield”.
The planned Starshield network “has not only upgraded its secure communication capabilities” from the Starlink satellite internet system, “but further expanded its Earth observation and payload capabilities”, it said.
Satellites in low-Earth orbit – at altitudes of 2,000km or less – provide better signals with shorter delays. Payloads such as transponders, imaging sensors and space environmental monitors, can be attached to them.
The commentary criticised the US for increasingly “militarising the transformation and development of low-orbit satellites” by cooperating with civilian and commercial entities, which it said “highlighted the US ambition to seize orbital resources and pursue space hegemony”.
Engaging Starshield for such military purposes also “posed huge challenges to information and space asset security to other countries”, it said.
“In recent regional military conflicts, the United States has relied on its space military capabilities to intervene in other countries by providing information support through ‘non-combatant means’,” it said. “This type of action has brought great challenges to maintaining regional peace and stability.”
SpaceX has been providing its civilian-focused Starlink satellite internet service to Ukraine since the early stages of the war there.
Since June 2023, the cost has been covered by Washington.
In February, Starlink was also given a licence to operate in Israel and parts of the Gaza Strip.
Chinese state-owned enterprises are developing rivals to Musk’s Starlink, such as the G60 Starlink and the Guo Wang project. In 2022, Beijing introduced a five-year space programme that included a goal to establish “satellite remote-sensing systems”.
China is also vying to put satellites in very low-Earth orbit – altitudes under 300km – which cost less and can offer higher-resolution images. But because such devices are closer to Earth, more satellites are needed to cover a specific area, making the network more complex.