Elon Musk’s SpaceX, already a leader in the field of satellites, is getting into the espionage game

The breakthrough took place last month, about 600 miles above Earth.

For the first time, the Pentagon’s Space Development Agency used lasers transmitting data at the speed of light to communicate between military satellites over a secure network, making it easier to track enemy missiles and, if necessary, shoot them down .

This was an important step not only for the Pentagon. It was a defining moment for a certain promising military contractor who had built key parts of this new system: Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Over the past year, SpaceX has begun making a significant move into building military and spy satellites, an industry that has long been dominated by large contractors like Raytheon and Northrop Grumman as well as larger players. small ones like York Space Systems.

The move comes as the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies prepare to spend billions of dollars to build a series of new satellite constellations in low Earth orbit, largely in response to recent moves by China to build its own space army. systems.

SpaceX is poised to take advantage, generating a new wave of questions within the federal government about the company’s growing dominance. Concerns have also emerged about the extent of this government dependence, given Mr. Musk’s global business operations, including with China, and his apparent interactions with government officials in Russia.

“The complication is that you are incredibly dependent on a private company, which means we have very little visibility into their finances,” said Todd Harrison, a former space industry executive who is now a senior researcher at the American Enterprise Institute. . “And it’s controlled by the richest man in the world, who has become heavily involved in politics and has been heavily involved with some foreign leaders who are adversaries of the United States. »