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American tycoon Elon Musk’s Space X has a $1.2 billion contract with United States’ National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to build low-orbit spy satellite network called Starshield.

Space X is already active in launching space capsules carrying astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on its Falcon 9 rocket. It has also been operating Starlink, a commercial satellite network with 5000 satellites afloat. Musk had offered the Starlink facility to Ukraine for military purposes ever since the war with Russia began two years ago, causing a flutter because military hardware was a monopoly of the government. Observers think that the trust of the American government in Musk has grown immensely in recent times because the entrepreneur has remained fiercely individualistic in his political stances, clashing with the political establishment, whether it is President Joe Biden or his rival, former president Donald Trump.

The Starshield programme is a clear indication that America has begun a military race, this time in space. The proposed spy satellite network will enable the US army to monitor the movement of rival forces anywhere in the world, and rush reinforcements to support American troops and ships and other resources. There is also the fact that there is no clear global military rival to America as there was during the Cold War in the then Soviet Union. But China is as emerging a global economic power if not a military one, and China is the only other country that is also planning to build a spy satellite network. There is also the difference that China has not yet declared itself the global power militarily. China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which was to increase the Chinese sphere of economic influence, has failed to take off. And China’s military aim is to safeguard its own strategic interests in the South China Sea region, which Beijing claims as part of its territorial waters, and hence its clashes with neighbours like the Philippines and Vietnam. It is not interested in sending out military aid to far off countries in Africa as do Russia, France.

Despite its thinning political and military influence in many parts of the world, the US is still trying to keep its strategic influence across the globe going, whether it is in the Pacific, the Indian Ocean, in Europe and in Middle East. It is in this context that spy satellite network assumes importance. The NRO has in a statement acknowledged the spy satellite network programme, and its cooperation with other agencies, companies and nations. It has however did not acknowledge the Musk link in the plan which Reuters has reported. Its spokesperson said, “The National Reconnaissance Office is developing the most capable, diverse, and resilient space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance the world has ever seen.”

The contract between Space X and NRO has been signed in 2021, and the prototype of the spy satellites was in the works since 2020. According to Reuters, other companies are also involved in the project but their names are not known. Space X has not yet accepted its participation and did not respond to Reuters’ request for confirmation. The involvement of Musk’s Space X in the new space military programme is not surprising. America’s private companies have always partnered the American government military and space programmes. In the case of Musk’s companies, the man remains the face and the force behind his companies, and a Space X collaboration with the American government agencies is a collaboration between the official agencies and Musk. That changes in a way the complexion the partnership. It is Musk who has now a hand in the American military prowess.