SpaceX quietly and modestly announced on its website a new public service Starshield. According to the company, the service offers a secure satellite network for state institutions. Thus, Starshield will be distributed in parallel with the Starlink Internet service for ordinary users.
The announcement of Starshield is the result of the work that SpaceX has already done with the governments of the United States and other countries of the world. In August, SpaceX signed a USD 2 million agreement with the US Air Force to provide satellite Internet access. Also, Starlink proved crucial for ensuring uninterrupted communication in Ukraine after a full-scale invasion by Russia. Last month, the Pentagon said it was already testing a Starlink connection in the Arctic, seen as a potential way of reliable communication for the US Navy, Bloomberg reports.
Starshield is offered in three services: Earth observation, communications, and sending a payload into space. SpaceX says that Starlink has already deployed end-to-end data encryption for ordinary users, but Starshield has additional top-level protection that can meet high government requirements. However, the exact capabilities and scale of the network are not specified in detail.
Other stated features include the use of an inter-satellite laser communication terminal, which would allow SpaceX hardware to communicate with partner satellites and function as part of a single network.
Starlink is originally proposed as a way to access the Internet in the most remote places where there is not even mobile network coverage. Now the service is offered in commercial aircraft, ground transport or Tesla electric vehicles, and now it’s the turn of state institutions. Probably, this scale and speed of deployment are aimed at achieving the goal of revenues of more than USD 30 billion on satellite Internet connection by 2025.
Earlier we reported on how SpaceX introduced a restriction of Internet traffic via Starlink.
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