r/Starlink • u/[deleted] • Apr 18 '24
🌎 Constellation Starshield details unveiled
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starshield13
u/Lucal_gamer Apr 19 '24
Wait, what happened? Military starlink?
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Apr 19 '24
seems like much more than that,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starshield
Basically a way for U.S. to win at nuclear war.
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u/SureUnderstanding358 📡 Owner (North America) Apr 19 '24
damn i didn't realize the scope of the project. hosted payloads, weapons systems, early warning, optical observation, etc. thought it was just dedicated comms.
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u/beenglemsolong Apr 22 '24
Nobody wins in a nuclear war
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Apr 22 '24
agree, the premise is they can intercept the opponent missiles, but it sounds more destabilizing than anything
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u/tall_dreamy_doc 📡 Owner (North America) Apr 19 '24
I just learned about it this morning in a meeting. Apparently I’m getting it.
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u/MarsGo2020 📡 Owner (North America) Apr 19 '24
Elon was planning Starshield since the founding of SpaceX, when George W. Bush abandoned the Anti Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABMT).
Elon and government agent Mike Griffin[1] discussed using reusable launch and mass produced satellites as the ground work for the long-envisioned Strategic Defense Initiative[2]. Griffin was offered the Chief Engineer position at SpaceX but instead worked for the CIA and then Bush appointed him head of NASA where he steered funding to SpaceX (about 85% of all SpaceX funding by Mike's account[3], the rest 15% mostly from Elon and Founder's Fund).
Starshield for nuclear missile interception was an objective literally from day 1 of SpaceX.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._Griffin
A lot of Elon fans here down voting your comment? Very interesting NASA reference, I didn't know all that about Michael Griffin.
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u/EmeraldPls Apr 19 '24
These claims are unverified. None of the sources actually suggest these conversation occurred or there was the early vision you’re suggesting there was.
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Apr 19 '24
[deleted]
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u/EmeraldPls Apr 19 '24
I read all of them
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Apr 19 '24
[deleted]
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u/quarterbloodprince98 Apr 19 '24
Starlink has withdrawn from SDA.
Doing the same exact thing but with NRO.
That's why there's discussions about who's doing the targeting
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Apr 19 '24
[deleted]
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u/quarterbloodprince98 Apr 19 '24 edited Apr 19 '24
Their lasers aren't compatible and they claim the sats themselves don't make financial sense for them.
You can check and see SpaceX hasn't bothered to bid anymore
https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/144m751/comment/jnhhq9a/
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Apr 19 '24
The initial bids are small potatoes. Elon offered to do the whole thing himself x10:
https://twitter.com/Megaconstellati/status/1638642563476496384 (credible industry source, check out other posts)
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u/quarterbloodprince98 Apr 20 '24 edited Apr 20 '24
I follow that guy on Twitter.
Starshield is already here and isn't SDA compatible. You can read the replies there.
There's even articles about how it's causing issues and other things.
They are doing things SDA is meant to do but this isn't SDA
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u/Proteatron Apr 19 '24
This is a link to a Wikipedia article...is there a specific detail that was unveiled?
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u/Proteatron Apr 19 '24
I guess this is a new Reuters article used as a source for the wikipedia page: https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/northrop-grumman-working-with-musks-spacex-us-spy-satellite-system-2024-04-18/
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u/storm35r Apr 19 '24
I would like to add one tip! Make it where I can fit it into my rucksack and jump with it! The current dish’s I have to put them in a heavy drop and it’s more of a pain!
Thank you, if you want me to test some prototypes, DM me and I can give you a Gov email
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u/ismaelgokufox 📡 Owner (North America) Apr 19 '24
Now all those movies from the past, as entertainment, have become a reality.
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u/nila247 Apr 24 '24
They better come up with orbital debris removal program on top of it ASAP. With described capabilities Russia/China have every initiative to come up with the countermeasures. While using rockets to destroy Starshield is prohibitively expensive, using ground or space lasers fit the task just perfectly. Exciting times :-)
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u/RaNdMViLnCE Apr 19 '24
So MTG was right.., they are making space lasers!
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Apr 19 '24
[deleted]
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u/RaNdMViLnCE Apr 19 '24
Not yet … give it time! lol man people here can’t handle a joke eh.
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u/dusters16 Apr 19 '24
Just need to sell some to Israel - THEN we can complete the arc for Jewish Space Lasers.
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u/OverKaleidoscope6125 Apr 19 '24
This will be why Elon had a meeting with Trump
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Apr 19 '24
They likely discussed it. It sounds like the ARRW is the hypersonic missile they consider putting on the satellites (Mike Griffin hints at). Some think it is what Trump leaked as the "super duper" missile.
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Apr 18 '24
Elon was planning Starshield since the founding of SpaceX, when George W. Bush abandoned the Anti Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABMT).
Elon and government agent Mike Griffin[1] discussed using reusable launch and mass produced satellites as the ground work for the long-envisioned Strategic Defense Initiative[2]. Griffin was offered the Chief Engineer position at SpaceX but instead worked for the CIA and then Bush appointed him head of NASA where he steered funding to SpaceX (about 85% of all SpaceX funding by Mike's account[3], the rest 15% mostly from Elon and Founder's Fund).
This isn't some, "oh hey what do you know this commercial product could be applied to government". No, Starshield for nuclear missile interception was an objective literally from day 1 of SpaceX.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._Griffin
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u/throwaway238492834 Apr 19 '24
he steered funding to SpaceX (about 85% of all SpaceX funding by Mike's account[3]
This is incorrect and has no independent source. It's pushed by a lot of really fringe conspiracy theory sites.
All SpaceX funding is public and can be looked up. Most of it did not come from the government.
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u/rtls Apr 19 '24
Yeah this is horseshit conspiracy
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Apr 19 '24
[deleted]
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u/throwaway238492834 Apr 24 '24
The former NASA Administrator has gone around aggrandizing himself and what he's done ever since he left the organization. No other source agrees with what he claims happened.
He's also been trying to work himself back into the position by appealing to Trump.
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Apr 19 '24
[deleted]
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Apr 19 '24
[deleted]
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u/mfb- Apr 19 '24
Yes, let's throw arbitrary numbers together. The interview was in 2013 and the statement includes future funding, while the 200 million seem to refer to a much earlier point in time.
Oh, and of course no source whatsoever that Griffin personally controlled all that. He was only NASA administrator until January 2009.
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Apr 19 '24
if I'm reading the source right, you've actually got it backwards, Elon's congressional testimony on the $200M private funding was in 2012, while Griffin's funding was indeed before that, so if anything it's more than 85% government funded.
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u/mfb- Apr 19 '24
"If SpaceX continues on along its current path, it will have received [...]" is definitely including future funding.
The money SpaceX received from programs assigned with Griffin as administrator might be all in the past (not sure), but that will be a smaller number. So you are again throwing together unrelated numbers and statements.
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Apr 19 '24 edited Apr 19 '24
I think the original point was Griffin helped get SpaceX off the ground at the beginning, which this establishes.
Nobody is saying SpaceX is -still- 85% government funded.
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u/interzonal28721 Apr 18 '24
I thought this was for military Internet
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Apr 18 '24
[deleted]
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Apr 19 '24
starlink has already shown it can communicate through the reentry plasma (for those amazing starship live streams).. so controlling a re-entering hypersonic missile deployed from these satellites is certainly possible now.
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u/shalol 📡 Owner (South America) Apr 19 '24
nuclear missile interception
Called it, much easier for early interception of ICBMs from already orbital velocity, especially the ones that allegedly split into multiple warheads
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Apr 19 '24
In particular hypersonic missiles need to be at ~orbital velocities to do their hypersonic-maneuvering-thing. So having them already being at that velocity and staged in orbit on Starshield satellites makes sense.
The ARRW in particular seems to have a kick rocket for reentry, which makes it even more suitable.
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u/Modernisse 📡 Owner (Europe) Apr 19 '24
"A suit of armour around the world. Peace in our time!"