A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 39A with a payload of a pair of lunar landers at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on January 15, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

In a two-for-one moonshot, SpaceX launched a pair of lunar landers Wednesday (January 15, 2025) for U.S. and Japanese companies looking to jumpstart business on Earth’s dusty sidekick.

The two landers rocketed away in the middle of the night from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Kennedy Space Center, the latest in a stream of private spacecraft aiming for the moon. They shared the ride to save money, taking separate roundabout routes for the monthslong journey.

It’s take 2 for the Tokyo-based ispace, whose first lander crashed into the moon two years ago. This time, it has a rover on board with a scoop to gather up lunar dirt for study and plans to test potential food and water sources for future explorers.

Lunar newcomer Texas-based Firefly Aerospace is flying 10 experiments for NASA, including a vacuum to gather dirt, a drill to measure the temperature below the surface and a device that could be used by future moonwalkers to keep the sharp, abrasive particles off their spacesuits and equipment.

Also read: U.S. faces risk of losing to China in second moon race

Firefly’s Blue Ghost — named after a species of U.S. Southeastern fireflies — should reach the moon first. The 6-foot-6-inches-tall (2-meter-tall) lander will attempt a touchdown in early March at Mare Crisium, a volcanic plain in the northern latitudes.

The slightly bigger ispace lander named Resilience will take four to five months to get there, targeting a touchdown in late May or early June at Mare Frigoris, even farther north on the moon’s near side.

“We don’t think this is a race. Some people say ‘race to the moon,’ but it’s not about the speed,” ispace’s founder CEO Takeshi Hakamada said this week from Cape Canaveral.

Both Hakamada and Firefly CEO Jason Kim acknowledge the challenges still ahead, given the wreckage littering the lunar landscape. Only five countries have successfully placed spacecraft on the moon since the 1960s: the former Soviet Union, U.S., China, India and Japan.

“We’ve done everything we can on the design and the engineering,” Kim said. Even so, he pinned an Irish shamrock to his jacket lapel Tuesday (January 14, 2025) night for good luck.

The U.S. remains the only one to have landed astronauts. NASA’s Artemis program, the successor to Apollo, aims to get astronauts back on the moon by the end of the decade.

Before that can happen, “we’re sending a lot of science and a lot of technology ahead of time to prepare for that,” NASA’s science mission chief Nicky Fox said on the eve of launch.

If acing their respective touchdowns, both spacecraft will spend two weeks operating in constant daylight, shutting down once darkness hits.

Once lowered onto the lunar surface, ispace’s 11-pound (5-kilogram) rover will stay near the lander, traveling up to hundreds of yards (meters) in circles at a speed of less than one inch (a couple centimeters) per second. The rover has its own special delivery to drop off on the lunar dust: a toy-size red house designed by a Swedish artist.

NASA is paying $101 million to Firefly for the mission and another $44 million for the experiments. Hakamada declined to divulge the cost of ispace’s rebooted mission with six experiments, saying it’s less than the first mission that topped $100 million.

Coming up by the end of February is the second moonshot for NASA by Houston-based Intuitive Machines. Last year, the company achieved the first U.S. lunar touchdown in more than a half-century, landing sideways near the south pole but still managing to operate.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched GSAT-20 – ISRO’s latest communications satellite

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a satellite payload on behalf of the Indian Space Research Organization lifts off from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Monday (November 18, 2024).
| Photo Credit: AP

India’s GSAT-N2 (GSAT-20) communication satellite was successfully launched by SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket in the early hours of November 19, 2024.

After lifting off at 12.01 a.m. (Indian Standard Time) from the Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, Falcon-9 put the GSAT-N2 to a geosynchronous transfer orbit. This is India’s first collaboration with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.  

It is a Ka-band high-throughput communication satellite of NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), which is the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). According to the ISRO, the satellite will enhance broadband services and in-flight connectivity across the Indian region.

The satellite offers Ka-Ka band HTS capacity with 32 beams having pan-India coverage, including Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands.

“This satellite, featuring multiple spot beams and wideband Ka x Ka transponders, aims to support a large subscriber base with small user terminals, significantly boosting system throughput through its multi-beam architecture which allows frequency reuse,” the ISRO said.

The GSAT-N2, with a lift-off mass of 4,700 kg, has a mission life of 14 years.

32 user beams

The satellite is equipped with 32 user beams, comprising eight narrow spot beams over the northeast region and 24 wide spot beams over the rest of India. 

These 32 beams will be supported by hub stations located within mainland India. The Ka-Band HTS communication payload provides a throughput of approximately 48 Gbps.

The payload consists of three parabolic 2.5-metre deployable reflectors with multiple feeds generating 32 spot beams over the Indian region using a single feed per beam configuration.

The satellite carries a Sun Sensor, Earth Sensor, Inertial Reference Unit (IRU), and Star Sensor. All sensors provide attitude data in the form of absolute attitude, while the IRU provides attitude rates and incremental angles about all the axes.

The GSAT-N2 is the second demand-driven satellite of NSIL.

It can be recalled that as part of the space sector reforms announced by the Centre in June 2020, NSIL was mandated to build, launch, own and operate satellites in “demand-driven mode” to meet service needs of the user.

As part of this, NSIL successfully undertook its first demand-driven satellite mission, GSAT-24 in June 2022, wherein the capacity-board of the satellite was fully secured by TataPlay.

According to SpaceX, this was the 19th flight for the Falcon-9 first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched SES-22, ispace’s HAKUTO-R MISSION 1, Amazonas-6, CRS-27, Bandwagon-1, and 13 Starlink missions.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a satellite payload on behalf of the Indian Space Research Organization lifts off from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Monday (November 18, 2024).
| Photo Credit: AP

India’s GSAT-N2 (GSAT-20) communication satellite was successfully launched by SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket in the early hours of November 19, 2024.

After lifting off at 12.01 a.m. (Indian Standard Time) from the Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, Falcon-9 put the GSAT-N2 to a geosynchronous transfer orbit. This is India’s first collaboration with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.  

It is a Ka-band high-throughput communication satellite of NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), which is the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). According to the ISRO, the satellite will enhance broadband services and in-flight connectivity across the Indian region.

The satellite offers Ka-Ka band HTS capacity with 32 beams having pan-India coverage, including Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands.

“This satellite, featuring multiple spot beams and wideband Ka x Ka transponders, aims to support a large subscriber base with small user terminals, significantly boosting system throughput through its multi-beam architecture which allows frequency reuse,” the ISRO said.

The GSAT-N2, with a lift-off mass of 4,700 kg, has a mission life of 14 years.

32 user beams

The satellite is equipped with 32 user beams, comprising eight narrow spot beams over the northeast region and 24 wide spot beams over the rest of India. 

These 32 beams will be supported by hub stations located within mainland India. The Ka-Band HTS communication payload provides a throughput of approximately 48 Gbps.

The payload consists of three parabolic 2.5-metre deployable reflectors with multiple feeds generating 32 spot beams over the Indian region using a single feed per beam configuration.

The satellite carries a Sun Sensor, Earth Sensor, Inertial Reference Unit (IRU), and Star Sensor. All sensors provide attitude data in the form of absolute attitude, while the IRU provides attitude rates and incremental angles about all the axes.

The GSAT-N2 is the second demand-driven satellite of NSIL.

It can be recalled that as part of the space sector reforms announced by the Centre in June 2020, NSIL was mandated to build, launch, own and operate satellites in “demand-driven mode” to meet service needs of the user.

As part of this, NSIL successfully undertook its first demand-driven satellite mission, GSAT-24 in June 2022, wherein the capacity-board of the satellite was fully secured by TataPlay.

According to SpaceX, this was the 19th flight for the Falcon-9 first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched SES-22, ispace’s HAKUTO-R MISSION 1, Amazonas-6, CRS-27, Bandwagon-1, and 13 Starlink missions.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s most sophisticated communications satellite, which will provide broadband services in remote areas and in-flight Internet in passenger aircraft, set off for its 34-minute journey into outer space onboard Elon Musk-owned SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket early Tuesday.

With a “Go Falcon. Go GSAT-20” cheer, Falcon 9 carrying GSAT N-2 – also called GSAT 20 – lifted off at 12.01 am from Space Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

“Hoping to see the launch go well. And all the best to the team,” ISRO Chairman S Somanath said in a recorded message.

The 4,700 kg fully satellite was too heavy for Indian rockets to carry, hence the foreign commercial launch.

The launch pad has been hired by SpaceX from the US’ Space Force, a special branch of the country’s armed forces that was created in 2019 to secure its space assets. The mission life of GSAT-N2 is 14 years.

This is the first time that ISRO is launching a satellite on a SpaceX rocket through its commercial arm New Space India Limited (NSIL). This is also the first time ISRO has built a satellite that only uses the advanced Ka band frequency – a range of radio frequencies between 27 and 40 gigahertz (GHz), which enables the satellite to have higher bandwidth.

Falcon 9 is a partially reusable rocket and SpaceX asserts “this will be the 19th flight for the Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission. After stage separation, the first stage will land on a drone ship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.”

After the satellite is placed in orbit, India’s Master Control Facility a part of ISRO at Hassan will take control of the satellite and then raise the satellite to its final home 36,000 kilometres above India.

So far, Falcon 9 has been part of 395 launches and has faced just four setbacks, achieving a remarkable success rate of 99%. Experts say that a dedicated launch of a Falcon 9 rocket costs about $70 million on average.

India is all set to launch its most sophisticated broadband communications satellite GSAT-20, also called GSAT N-2, into orbit on a Falcon 9 rocket for the first time next week. The rocket is made by SpaceX, the company owned by ‘The First Buddy’ of US President-Elect Donald Trump, Elon Musk. However, the question that looms is – how reliable is this American rocket and could India have used another launcher?

Falcon 9 is a partially reusable rocket made by billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX and it had its first flight of the current version in 2018. To date, the rocket has been part of 393 launches and has faced just four failures, achieving a remarkable success rate of 99 percent. A dedicated launch of a Falcon 9 rocket costs about $70 million on average, experts say.

“We got a good deal on this maiden launch with SpaceX,” says Radhakrishnan Durairaj, Chairman and Managing Director of New Space India Limited, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) that is spearheading this satellite launch. Falcon 9 was the only commercial launcher available for India for the time frame ISRO was seeking.

A standard Falcon 9 rocket is 70 meters high and weighs around 549 tons at lift-off. It is designed as a two-stage rocket that can lift up to 8,300 kilograms to the geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) and 22,800 kilograms to the low earth orbit (LEO). It can also carry nearly 4,000 kilograms to the orbit of Mars. The GSAT N-2 satellite, which the rocket is supposed to carry, has a mass of 4,700 kilograms. India has sought a dedicated launch of the rocket and there will be no co-passenger satellites on this flight.

One of the key features of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is that it is a reusable rocket designed for reliable and safe transport of people and payloads into the Earth’s orbit and beyond. It is also the world’s first orbital-class reusable rocket. This allows SpaceX to re-fly the most expensive parts of the rocket, which in turn drives down the cost of space access. It is fuelled by rocket-grade kerosene and liquefied oxygen.

The Falcon 9 rocket has had 324 re-flights, which means rockets with reusable parts. From its many missions, it has had 349 landings of the stages. The first stage of the rocket returns to its base after it completes its job, which makes for a spectacular viewing. To date, the maximum a stage has been reused is 23 times. This, SpaceX says, helps lower the cost of launches.

Tracking footage of Falcon 9 first stage returning to Earth after launching the Ax-2 mission to orbit pic.twitter.com/fLPQ7OhJOg

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 3, 2023

In 2021, Falcon 9 set a world record by launching 143 satellites into orbit on a single mission, breaking India’s 2017 record of launching 104 satellites on a single mission of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.

This year alone, SpaceX has already had 106 Falcon 9 launches and the company aims to complete a total of 148 launches by the end of the year, which would be a record for any single rocket. In fact, within this week itself, there are four scheduled launches of the Falcon 9 rocket from three different launch sites. In comparison, ISRO has made 95 launches in the last 45 years since India began launching heavier rockets.

The same Falcon 9 rocket is also used for undertaking orbital missions to supply cargo and fly astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). The rocket has carried SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft on 20 missions to the ISS, out of which, the most talked about is the Crew Dragon mission launched on September 28, 2024, aimed to bring back astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore from the ISS. They will return to Earth in February 2025 on the Crew Dragon module.

New Delhi:

SpaceX, the company owned by ‘The First Buddy’ of US President-elect Donald Trump, is the first big beneficiary of a multi-million dollar deal inked by India’s space agency. Early next week, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will take India’s most modern communications satellite GSAT-20, also called GSAT N-2, into orbit.

This is the first of many commercial engagements the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has with SpaceX. While some say ISRO and SpaceX are competitors for low-cost launches, in the global commercial space market no one doubts that SpaceX is way-way ahead.

It is well-known that Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi share a great bond with each calling the other “my friend”. The maverick entrepreneur Elon Musk is also friends with both of them, with Elon Musk saying he is “a fan of Modi”. The optics and timing of the space launch are just right, but incidentally the deals predate the American election results, and hence the critics of either Washington DC or New Delhi cannot raise “crony capitalism”.

The GSAT-N2 will be launched from Cape Canaveral in the US. Made by ISRO, this 4,700 kg satellite was too heavy for Indian rockets to carry, hence the foreign commercial launch. India’s own rocket ‘The Bahubali’ or the Launch Vehicle Mark-3 could have at best lifted a maximum of about 4,000-4,100 kg into a geostationary transfer orbit.

India had till now leaned on Arianespace to launch its heavy satellites, but at present it does not have any operational rockets and the only reliable option India had was to go with SpaceX. Chinese rockets are a no-go for India, and Russia is not able to offer its rockets for commercial launches due to the conflict in Ukraine.

“We got a good deal on this maiden launch with SpaceX,” Radhakrishnan Durairaj, Chairman and Managing Director of New Space India Ltd (NSIL), the Bengaluru-based commercial arm of ISRO, told NDTV.

“The price for launching this particular satellite… the technical compatibility and also the commercial deals… I would say it was a good deal for us, for launching such a heavy satellite on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket,” he said.

ISRO made GSAT-N2, with a lift-off mass of 4,700 kg, and has a mission life of 14 years. It is a purely commercial launch being front-ended by NSIL. The satellite is equipped with 32 user beams, comprising eight narrow spot beams over the northeast region and 24 wide spot beams over the rest of India. These 32 beams will be supported by hub stations located within mainland India. It will also help enable in-flight Internet connectivity.

Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Donald Trump had announced on Wednesday, according to news agency ANI.

Elon Musk, a fan of PM Modi, during a meeting with the Prime Minister on June 21, 2023 had said, “I’m incredibly excited about the future of India. India has more promise than any large country in the world. He (PM Modi) really cares about India as he’s pushing us to make significant investments in India. I am a fan of Modi. It was a fantastic meeting and I like him quite a lot.”

It is estimated that this single dedicated commercial launch of the Falcon 9 rocket to lift India’s communications satellite will cost $60-70 million.

Over the last few months, the Tesla chief has been asking India to grant SpaceX licence to sell satellite-based Internet services in India using its Starlink Constellation. “I look forward to bringing Starlink to India where it will help remote villages,” Elon Musk said in June 2023.

This week, Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said Elon Musk-owned Starlink is yet to comply with security norms, and a licence for satellite communications services will be issued only after they meet all the requirements for services in India. The satellite communication services major is in the process of completing all the requirements and will get a licence once they complete the process, the minister added.

“We are more than happy to give them (licence) if they (Starlink) comply with all the conditions. You have to look at it from a security perspective, making sure that all security concerns are addressed. When they do that we will be more than happy to give it. Obviously, they are in the process of doing it,” Mr Scindia said.

India has also inked another commercial deal with the Houston-based company Axiom Space to send an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station on-board the SpaceX Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon human space flight system. That deal is expected to cost $60 million. Earnings by SpaceX from the mission to send the astronaut could be much lower as four astronauts are sharing the flight.

New Delhi:

SpaceX, the company owned by ‘The First Buddy’ of US President-elect Donald Trump, is the first big beneficiary of a multi-million dollar deal inked by India’s space agency. Early next week, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will take India’s most modern communications satellite GSAT-20, also called GSAT N-2, into orbit.

This is the first of many commercial engagements the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has with SpaceX. While some say ISRO and SpaceX are competitors for low-cost launches, in the global commercial space market no one doubts that SpaceX is way-way ahead.

It is well-known that Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi share a great bond with each calling the other “my friend”. The maverick entrepreneur Elon Musk is also friends with both of them, with Elon Musk saying he is “a fan of Modi”. The optics and timing of the space launch are just right, but incidentally the deals predate the American election results, and hence the critics of either Washington DC or New Delhi cannot raise “crony capitalism”.

The GSAT-N2 will be launched from Cape Canaveral in the US. Made by ISRO, this 4,700 kg satellite was too heavy for Indian rockets to carry, hence the foreign commercial launch. India’s own rocket ‘The Bahubali’ or the Launch Vehicle Mark-3 could have at best lifted a maximum of about 4,000-4,100 kg into a geostationary transfer orbit.

India had till now leaned on Arianespace to launch its heavy satellites, but at present it does not have any operational rockets and the only reliable option India had was to go with SpaceX. Chinese rockets are a no-go for India, and Russia is not able to offer its rockets for commercial launches due to the conflict in Ukraine.

“We got a good deal on this maiden launch with SpaceX,” Radhakrishnan Durairaj, Chairman and Managing Director of New Space India Ltd (NSIL), the Bengaluru-based commercial arm of ISRO, told NDTV.

“The price for launching this particular satellite… the technical compatibility and also the commercial deals… I would say it was a good deal for us, for launching such a heavy satellite on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket,” he said.

ISRO made GSAT-N2, with a lift-off mass of 4,700 kg, and has a mission life of 14 years. It is a purely commercial launch being front-ended by NSIL. The satellite is equipped with 32 user beams, comprising eight narrow spot beams over the northeast region and 24 wide spot beams over the rest of India. These 32 beams will be supported by hub stations located within mainland India. It will also help enable in-flight Internet connectivity.

Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Donald Trump had announced on Wednesday, according to news agency ANI.

Elon Musk, a fan of PM Modi, during a meeting with the Prime Minister on June 21, 2023 had said, “I’m incredibly excited about the future of India. India has more promise than any large country in the world. He (PM Modi) really cares about India as he’s pushing us to make significant investments in India. I am a fan of Modi. It was a fantastic meeting and I like him quite a lot.”

It is estimated that this single dedicated commercial launch of the Falcon 9 rocket to lift India’s communications satellite will cost $60-70 million.

Over the last few months, the Tesla chief has been asking India to grant SpaceX licence to sell satellite-based Internet services in India using its Starlink Constellation. “I look forward to bringing Starlink to India where it will help remote villages,” Elon Musk said in June 2023.

This week, Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said Elon Musk-owned Starlink is yet to comply with security norms, and a licence for satellite communications services will be issued only after they meet all the requirements for services in India. The satellite communication services major is in the process of completing all the requirements and will get a licence once they complete the process, the minister added.

“We are more than happy to give them (licence) if they (Starlink) comply with all the conditions. You have to look at it from a security perspective, making sure that all security concerns are addressed. When they do that we will be more than happy to give it. Obviously, they are in the process of doing it,” Mr Scindia said.

India has also inked another commercial deal with the Houston-based company Axiom Space to send an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station on-board the SpaceX Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon human space flight system. That deal is expected to cost $60 million. Earnings by SpaceX from the mission to send the astronaut could be much lower as four astronauts are sharing the flight.

The SpaceX crew that will ferry back two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station docked with the orbiting laboratory Sunday, a live stream of the mission showed.

The Falcon 9 rocket took off at 1:17 pm (1717 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Saturday, with the Crew-9 mission on a Dragon spacecraft making contact with the ISS at 5:30 pm Sunday.

After docking was completed, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov boarded the station just after 7:00 pm, embracing their floating colleagues on the space station.

“What a fabulous day it was today,” NASA deputy administrator Pam Melroy said at a news conference.

When Hague and Gorbunov return from the space station in February, they will bring back two space veterans — Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — whose stay on the ISS was prolonged for months due to problems with their Boeing-designed Starliner spacecraft. 

The newly developed Starliner was making its first crewed flight when it delivered Wilmore and Williams to the ISS in June.

Welcome, #Crew9! After floating through the Dragon’s hatch, our new arrivals join the crew aboard the @Space_Station. They’ll spend five months conducting @ISS_Research and maintenance on the orbiting lab. pic.twitter.com/DJX7f9vxlg

— NASA (@NASA) September 29, 2024

They were supposed to be there for only an eight-day stay, but after problems with the Starliner’s propulsion system emerged during the flight there, NASA was forced to weigh a radical change in plans.

After weeks of intensive tests on the Starliner’s reliability, the space agency finally decided to return it to Earth without its crew, and to bring the two stranded astronauts back home on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission.

SpaceX, the private company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, has been flying regular missions every six months to allow the rotation of ISS crews.

But the launch of Crew-9 was postponed from mid-August to late September to give NASA experts more time to evaluate the reliability of the Starliner and decide how to proceed.  

It was then delayed a few more days by the destructive passage of Hurricane Helene, a powerful storm that roared into the opposite side of Florida on Thursday.

In total, Hague and Gorbunov will spend some five months on the ISS; and Wilmore and Williams, eight months.

In all, Crew-9 will conduct some 200 scientific experiments. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

SpaceX is building a network of hundreds of spy satellites under a classified contract with a U.S. intelligence agency, five sources familiar with the program said, demonstrating deepening ties between billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s space company and national security agencies.

The network is being built by SpaceX’s Starshield business unit under a $1.8 billion contract signed in 2021 with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), an intelligence agency that manages spy satellites, the sources said.

The plans show the extent of SpaceX’s involvement in U.S. intelligence and military projects and illustrate a deeper Pentagon investment into vast, low-Earth orbiting satellite systems aimed at supporting ground forces.

Also Read |Starlink: Why the new sovereign of low-earth orbit is bad news

If successful, the sources said the program would significantly advance the ability of the U.S. government and military to quickly spot potential targets almost anywhere on the globe.

The contract signals growing trust by the intelligence establishment of a company whose owner has clashed with the Biden administration and sparked controversy over the use of Starlink satellite connectivity in the Ukraine war, the sources said.

The Wall Street Journal reported in February the existence of a $1.8 billion classified Starshield contract with an unknown intelligence agency without detailing the purposes of the program.

Reuters reporting discloses for the first time that the SpaceX contract is for a powerful new spy system with hundreds of satellites bearing Earth-imaging capabilities that can operate as a swarm in low orbits, and that the spy agency that Mr. Musk’s company is working with is the NRO.

Reuters was unable to determine when the new network of satellites would come online and could not establish what other companies are part of the program with their contracts.

SpaceX, the world’s largest satellite operator, did not respond to several requests for comment about the contract, its role in it and details on satellite launches. The Pentagon referred a request for comment to the NRO and SpaceX.

In a statement the NRO acknowledged its mission to develop a sophisticated satellite system and its partnerships with other government agencies, companies, research institutions and nations, but declined to comment on Reuters’ findings about the extent of SpaceX’s involvement in the effort.

“The National Reconnaissance Office is developing the most capable, diverse, and resilient space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system the world has ever seen,” a spokesperson said.

The satellites can track targets on the ground and share that data with U.S. intelligence and military officials, the sources said. In principle, that would enable the U.S. government to quickly capture continuous imagery of activities on the ground nearly anywhere on the globe, aiding intelligence and military operations, they added.

Roughly a dozen prototypes have been launched since 2020, among other satellites on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets, three of the sources said.

A U.S. government database of objects in orbit shows several SpaceX missions having deployed satellites that neither the company nor the government have ever acknowledged. Two sources confirmed those to be prototypes for the Starshield network.

All the sources asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to discuss the U.S. government program.

The Pentagon is already a big SpaceX customer, using its Falcon 9 rockets to launch military payloads into space. Starshield’s first prototype satellite, launched in 2020, was part of a separate, roughly $200 million contract that helped position SpaceX for the subsequent $1.8 billion award, one of the sources said.

The planned Starshield network is separate from Starlink, SpaceX’s growing commercial broadband constellation that has about 5,500 satellites in space to provide near-global internet to consumers, companies and government agencies.

The classified constellation of spy satellites represents one of the U.S. government’s most sought-after capabilities in space because it is designed to offer the most persistent, pervasive and rapid coverage of activities on Earth.

“No one can hide,” one of the sources said of the system’s potential capability, when describing the network’s reach.

Mr. Musk, also the founder and CEO of Tesla and owner of social media company X, has driven innovation in space but has caused frustration among some officials in the Biden administration because of his past control of Starlink in Ukraine, where Kyiv’s military uses it for secure communications in the conflict with Russia. That authority over Starlink in a war zone by Mr. Musk, and not the U.S. military, created tension between him and the U.S. government.

A series of Reuters’ stories has detailed how Mr. Musk’s manufacturing operations, including at SpaceX, have harmed consumers and workers.

The Starshield network is part of intensifying competition between the U.S. and its rivals to become the dominant military power in space, in part by expanding spy satellite systems away from bulky, expensive spacecraft at higher orbits. Instead a vast, low-orbiting network can provide quicker and near-constant imaging of the Earth.

China also plans to start building its own satellite constellations, and the Pentagon has warned of space weapon threats from Russia, which could be capable of disabling entire satellite networks.

Starshield aims to be more resilient to attacks from sophisticated space powers.

The network is also intended to greatly expand the U.S. government’s remote-sensing capabilities and will consist of large satellites with imaging sensors, as well as a greater number of relay satellites that pass the imaging data and other communications across the network using inter-satellite lasers, two of the sources said.

The NRO includes personnel from the U.S. Space Force and CIA and provides classified satellite imagery for the Pentagon and other intelligence agencies.

The spy satellites will house sensors provided by another company, three of the sources said.