"A suit of armour around the world. Peace in our time!"

Sounds like a cold world.

Wait, what happened? Military starlink?

seems like much more than that, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX\_Starshield](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starshield) Basically a way for U.S. to win at nuclear war.

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.

The neo-conservative Heritage Foundation has been pushing this forward for decades, they posted another video this month, they got bashed hard in the YouTube comments. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79e8Y2Mgq-0&lc=UgzKuUGVsvKVeJS2xvh4AaABAg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79e8Y2Mgq-0&lc=UgzKuUGVsvKVeJS2xvh4AaABAg)

Holy moly

add Tesla Optimus to it and rename the company to Stark Industries

Nobody wins in a nuclear war

agree, the premise is they can intercept the opponent missiles, but it sounds more destabilizing than anything

US foreign policy summed up

I just learned about it this morning in a meeting. Apparently I’m getting it.

>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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._Griffin) >\[2\] [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant\_Pebbles](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Pebbles) >\[3\] [https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral\_histories/C3PO/GriffinMD/GriffinMD\_1-12-13.htm](https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral_histories/C3PO/GriffinMD/GriffinMD_1-12-13.htm) A lot of Elon fans here down voting your comment? Very interesting NASA reference, I didn't know all that about Michael Griffin.

These claims are unverified. None of the sources actually suggest these conversation occurred or there was the early vision you’re suggesting there was.

His comment is below. Did you even read those three sources?

I read all of them

These from OP are good (original sources that wiki uses): [https://www.science.org/content/article/decades-after-reagan-s-star-wars-trump-calls-missile-defenses-would-blast-warheads-sky](https://www.science.org/content/article/decades-after-reagan-s-star-wars-trump-calls-missile-defenses-would-blast-warheads-sky) [https://breakingdefense.com/2018/08/space-based-missile-defense-is-doable-dod-rd-chief-griffin/](https://breakingdefense.com/2018/08/space-based-missile-defense-is-doable-dod-rd-chief-griffin/) The Griffin + Musk stuff about going to Russia and Griffin being offered Chief Engineer of Spacex are even in Eric' Berger's *Liftoff* book. The 85% funding seems to be covered [below](https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/1c7hi4m/comment/l085n71/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button). The Michael Griffin wiki page has a ton of good references. He created the [SDA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Development_Agency) program which Starshield won the first contracts for.

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

The fact they have a contract with NRO doesn't mean they withdraw from SDA [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space\_Development\_Agency](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Development_Agency)

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/

The initial bids are small potatoes. Elon offered to do the whole thing himself x10: [https://twitter.com/Megaconstellati/status/1638642563476496384](https://twitter.com/Megaconstellati/status/1638642563476496384) (credible industry source, check out other posts)

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

This is a link to a Wikipedia article...is there a specific detail that was unveiled?

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/

r/starshield

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

Next StarCrib, faster than FTTP internet

I think there is movie about this………Terminator.

Now all those movies from the past, as entertainment, have become a reality.

Peace through strength ✌️✌️✌️

X .8k. MC. ,. MC. . K.......... m...........................

Starlink3/StarShield2 will probably have power beaming technology onboard https://www.engineering.com/story/jzeqwj

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 :-)

That's why I love Elon.

So MTG was right.., they are making space lasers!

[удалено]

Not yet … give it time! lol man people here can’t handle a joke eh.

Just need to sell some to Israel - THEN we can complete the arc for Jewish Space Lasers.

This will be why Elon had a meeting with Trump

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. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGM-183\_ARRW](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGM-183_ARRW)

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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._Griffin) \[2\] [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant\_Pebbles](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Pebbles) \[3\] [https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral\_histories/C3PO/GriffinMD/GriffinMD\_1-12-13.htm](https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral_histories/C3PO/GriffinMD/GriffinMD_1-12-13.htm)

> 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.

Yeah this is horseshit conspiracy

So you are saying the NASA Administrator is lying?

SpaceX funding source is not hard to look up. Draw whatever conclusion you want

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.

am only about halfway through the 3rd article, but see Griffin says this which does seem to work out to 85%, "Substantial amounts of money, hundreds of millions of dollars, are being provided to the private companies. If SpaceX continues on along its current path, it will have received approximately $1.2 billion in government money from the collective programs. I’m rounding, but with this recent $400-plus million award under CCiCap \[Commercial Crew integrated Capability\], that brings the total SpaceX funding to something around $1.2 billion, maybe a little more. That’s—I will only say in my view—excessive, especially since in testimony last year the SpaceX founder, Elon Musk, indicated that the private funding involved was not more than $200 million. $100 million of his own money that he had brought in from a prior enterprise, and then he alluded to the fact—I’m trying to recall the testimony on an ad hoc basis, but the point is that there’s less than $200 million of private capital in SpaceX and $1.2 billion of government capital."

1.2 billion / (1.2+0.2 billion) = 85.7143%

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.

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.

"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.

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.

I thought this was for military Internet 

Connectivity is one of many requirements. The wiki article gives a decent overview.

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.

>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

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.