The Pentagon is already a high-value buyer of the company's rocket launches and had shown increasing interest in its Starlink satellite internet.

The Pentagon has awarded Elon Musk’s SpaceX its first confirmed contract for the Starshield network it’s developing, a military-specific version of the company’s Starlink satellite internet system, the defense agency said Wednesday.

A Space Force spokesperson confirmed that SpaceX on Sept. 1 was awarded a one-year contract for Starshield with a maximum value of $70 million. The award came alongside 18 other companies through a program run by the Space Force’s commercial satellite communications office.

“The SpaceX contract provides for Starshield end-to-end service (via the Starlink constellation), user terminals, ancillary equipment, network management and other related services,” Space Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek told CNBC.

  • Cyrus DraegurEnglish
    91·
    9 months ago

    I’m sure the US government would love nothing more than to smash musk open like a piggy bank and annex everything he owns through some mix of civil asset forfeiture and eminent domain on sloppily and carelessly assembled rhetorical basis that boils down to “because we say so,” and also “what are you going to do about it anyway loser, we have nukes” plus furthermore “you can’t possibly pretend like this dipshit didn’t have it coming. If one does not wish to find out, one should not fuck around”

    • NOT_RICK@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      9 months ago

      They don’t need to make up a basis to take over his stuff, it already exists and has existed for almost 75 years. They’d just tie his hands with the defense production act if push came to shove. They could then just lock Elon up if he refused to do what he was told.