As Elon Musk becomes a major player in the formation of incoming president Donald Trump’s administration, it’s time to take a moment in time and look at what Musk’s businesses bring to the Republican party’s commander-in-chief.
Strategic Demands associate, GreenPolicy360, has been following the development of Earth Science and digital scanning technologies from space since the 1970s. The initial interest we had in this new field of study came from association with a US Congressman George E. Brown who became a prime mover over three decades of policy, oversight and technology in his roles shepherding Earth and Climate Science, Earth Observations from Space, Education and Communications. Today’s Earth Observing System lets us see George Brown’s vision realized.
Representative Brown was credited, after his death in 1999, for the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and was acknowledged as the ‘father’ of the Landsat program which created the first ‘eyes in the sky’ satellites and digital technologies to scan, record and make available for science Earth-site data for science and education study, providing a unique record of dynamic changes running for over five decades now.
The recent development of New Space and ‘Democratization of Space’, using the first generation of low-earth orbit satellite capabilities developed with George Brown’s push and spun off from NASA/NOAA and a wide range of government programs, projects and funding grants to universities and businesses, is now being seen with next generation opportunities.
The vast potential here runs from public to private and at the front of this new market and its challenges is Elon Musk and his constellation of companies pushing next generation space technology.
Broadband Across the Us and Worldwide
First, a series of quotes from the Washington Post, December 2024
Starlink currently has some 6,400 working internet satellites in orbit, 10 times more than its nearest rival, and separately a quiet but fast-growing surveillance satellite business.
Musk, for his part, initially expressed mixed views of Trump’s presidency. The SpaceX founder, who had leaned Democratic, quit two of Trump’s advisory councils in 2017 to protest the president’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord. But he praised Trump’s establishment of the Space Force as “sensible,” saying it would help civilization expand into space.
Trump’s Federal Communications Commission authorized a fledgling Starlink in 2018 to launch a first tranche of 4,425 internet satellites, despite protest from rivals that such an unprecedented number would clutter the skies. It was an audacious decision: Starlink, an untested vendor, got a green light to nearly double the total number of satellites orbiting Earth.
While Starlink was marketed as an affordable internet option for rural residents, defense officials appreciated its military utility from the early days. A strong data connection in previous dead zones opened new capabilities like streaming battlefield drone video back to headquarters or course-correcting missiles midflight.
[Starlink is] fighting to be considered for tens of billions of dollars in federal subsidies alongside established internet providers. The Biden administration has been wary, saying they must be judicious with taxpayer dollars and that Starlink has yet to reliably meet FCC-defined “broadband” speeds.
… Starlink is more likely to land federal internet subsidies under a Trump administration.
Democrats traditionally view broadband more like a utility in which everyone deserves the same service, he said, while Republicans are more willing to let an eclectic patchwork of technologies shake out through market competition. The largest of these federal subsidy programs, the $42 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program, has only just begun, with the next administration getting a say in fund distribution.
In a move that would ready the company for [a Trump administration] opportunity, Starlink this month filed another request with the FCC to expand its fleet to 29,988 satellites. There are around 10,000 satellites orbiting the Earth right now. Most of them are Starlink’s.
Next Gen US Space Force Supremacy
“It doesn’t take a wizard to understand the military implications,” remarked the former SpaceX executive, who said Musk sometimes invoked China’s competitive threat in meetings with Pentagon officials.
Globe-girding surveillance
Starlink is building out a next-generation network of surveillance satellites for government use, jostling with more established players like Maxar Technologies and Planet Labs. Industry experts say the company is on track to build the world’s first system able to monitor all spots on Earth continuously in near real-time, revolutionizing reconnaissance.
There’s been much hushed discussion in the space industry this year over Starlink’s plan to supplement its satellites for the internet with a second type in its secretive “Starshield” unit dedicated to surveillance.
Five industry experts told The Washington Post that Starlink appears to be the front-runner in building the first satellite system able to see all places on Earth continuously in high-definition, even as many details of the project remain unclear.
“You’re approaching a near real-time capability to see any spot on Earth,” said Michael Brown, former director of the Defense Innovation Unit, a Pentagon technology unit, of this next wave of satellites led by Starlink.
Clare Hopper, head of the U.S. Space Force’s Commercial Satellite Communications Office, said the Pentagon is working to put another $12 billion in low-earth-orbit satellite contracts on the table, up from her office’s current authorization of $1 billion. She said these contracts would not only go to Starlink but to a range of companies…
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The use of satellite imaging is up in the air …
StratDem will be tracking the trajectory of US space systems & arms race …
Costs of War
New Definitions of Security @ StratDem
More on best use of ‘Eyes in the Sky’ @ GreenPolicy 360 …
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