While the primary purpose of the SpaceX Starlink large low Earth orbit satellite constellation is a commercial communications service, as has been seen in Ukraine, it has a significant military application. And so SpaceX is now pivoting towards this as it hopes to develop its “starshield” business aimed at providing a service for communications relay, actual satellite reconnaissance via optical and other sensing payloads, and other hosted payloads for the US military sector. Details remain very limited however and it is unclear exactly how many of the 3,500 first generation or later satellites operated by the Starlink system will be used for each application.
Starlink satellites in their dispensers before launch. Courtesy: SpaceX
