SpaceX job posts hint at building satellite constellations for US military

Published within the previous week, unusual SpaceX project postings have started to unite a variety of topics unusual for the company, in entering into an entirely new business and mode of operations, indicating a certain amount of interest.

Judging in the project descriptions, SpaceX is looking to employ engineers acquainted with incorporating third-party payloads onto satellite leases that are in-house, and they’re primarily interested in engineers with Top Secret security clearances.

Reading: @DARPA to begin new attempt to build military constellations in low Earth orbithttps://t.co/n9FG7W88Cl

(through @Sandra_I_Erwin/ / @SpaceNews_mil/ / @SpaceNews_Inc)

— Collin Krum (@collinkrum) June 1, 2018

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Considering that the evident demand for high-level safety clearances to get involved and also the subtlety of the appropriate job postings, it s difficult to determine what SpaceX’s goals are. They include only enough detail to stage in the direction of explanations. These revolve around a industry in particular: satellite operations and earnings for third parties.

To some extent, these job listings must be anticipated: SpaceX has extensive experience building spacecraft (Falcon 9 upper stages and Dragon) specifically meant for internal use and surgeries only. Instead, what is astonishing about the project listings is the existence of repeated references to “customer payload[s]” in the context of “satellite mission design”, “SpaceX-developed satellite constellations and payload missions”, the “simulation of remote sensing payloads and constellations”, and a demand for both “on-orbit commissioning” or even “activation”.

To put it differently, there’s absolutely no explanation for SpaceX would need any of those items, at least in the context of this company’s publicly-known activities and company interests. Taken individually, they might be explained by – as described in exactly the same listings – “[SpaceX’s enlarging ] classified mission attest ”, since it’so renowned that SpaceX is in the practice of certifying Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy to launch all practicable Air Force (USAF) and National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) payloads. Need to get set in high-energy orbits that rely on extended upper stage coasts between orbit-raising maneuvers, essentially requiring modifications to Falcon 9’s stage so that it becomes a sort of ad-hoc, satellite that is short-lived.

Starlink spinoffs

Nonetheless, in most (conceivable) cases where SpaceX might launch a highly-classified payload to get a government customer, the dynamic remains exactly that – launch supplier (SpaceX) and customer (NRO/USAF/etc). The same as FedEx or UPS have no possession of or connection with the goods they transfer, satellite launch providers are just delivering a (very costly, delicate, and irreplaceable) payload from Point A (the ground) to Point B (orbit). When UPS ships a new smartphone in producer to the customer, they certainly do not execute an “in-house commissioning” – in the event the customer needs help setting up their new mobile, they go to the maker or service provider (mobile carrier).

In exactly the exact identical manner, satellite data is a generally necessary process at which the satellite maker – rarely the actual owner or support provider – raises or fine-tunes the expensive spacecraft’s orbit and verifies that all systems and payloads are working as planned – just after that process is complete does the maker eventually ‘hand off’ the satellite to the client that paid for it. Sometimes, the maker continues to maintain or monitor the satellite in the background as its customers are served by the owner, much like military plane producers are contracted to preserve or encourage those planes even after delivery.

Judging in the demand for safety clearance in nearly each one of these job postings that are new, SpaceX obviously has a very particular sort of customer in mind. Might it be DARPA, NRO, the USAF, or even any totally unknown authorities celebrity, one or several of the entities have expressed explicit interest in coopting SpaceX’s newfound status as a potential producer. If that were not the case, SpaceX would not be eager to publish job postings with top-secret clearance because an explicit prerequisite.

Iridium NEXT satellites form an arc through deployment, December 2017. (SpaceX)
Project Blackjack

Finally, it’s s incontrovertible that the possibility of a finished vertically-integrated launch and satellite service provider may be so alluring that things such as the NRO, USAF, or DARPA just could not pass up the chance to give it a try. In a purely speculative perspective, the solutions and procedures SpaceX seems to be at the middle of growing are an almost perfect fit with DARPA’s (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) brand new Blackjack software.  Perfectly summarized in September by Space News reporter Sandra Erwin,

“[DARPA] wants to buy satellites from commercial vendors, equip them with sensor payloads and set up a small constellation in orbit to learn how they work in operations that are real. ”

DARPA awarded a 1.5M contract to smallsat operator and manufacturer Blue Canyon on in October 2018, small relative to this program’s roughly $118M funding. DARPA has made clear that it plans to finalize numerous contracts with different potential satellite designers and operators so as to guarantee a competitive environment, fuel growth in a rather new industry, also pave the way to the final procurement of an experimental constellation of 20 satellites from 2021. If successful, it may completely alter how the US government procures federal security-related satellites, providing a path to set up capabilities.

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The article SpaceX project places hint at building satellite constellations to get US military appeared first on TESLARATI.com.

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