While astronomers and privacy advocates alike keep a wary eye on the increasing volume of Starlink satellites tossed into orbit by SpaceX (currently 955 and counting), a number of other companies are quietly adding some controversial sputniks of their own.
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is one of the 3-letter agencies jockeying for space among the ever expanding metallic constellation assembling in the night sky. The decades-old NROL missions involve the strategic placement of government satellites and spacecraft for surveillance and intelligence gathering purposes, and each launch, “carries a national security payload designed, built and operated by the National Reconnaissance Office.” Their secretive satellite network allows the NRO to provide high quality, close-up images and real-time monitoring to defense and intelligence organizations.
Despite being allocated one of the largest budgets in the intelligence community, the NRO only recently shed its status as a “black” program. It was initially established in 1960 to give the United States an aerial view of the movements and locations of high-value targets back on the ground during the Cold War. Beyond intrusive imaging, the recon fleets are also designed to capture a wide range of private voice and internet communications. It was not declassified and publicly acknowledged until 1992 — more than 30 years and hundreds of spy satellites later.
These governmental efforts are supported by rockets and technology provided by the usual suspects — private companies like Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin all play large supporting roles. More recently, a new wave of smaller companies are also getting in on the act, fulfilling the government’s desire for on-demand monitoring and expanded data collection.
Quenching the intelligence community’s thirst for info has created a thriving niche industry. Companies like BlackSky and Satellogic have been creating their own networks of sophisticated photographic satellites in response to an, “unsatisfied demand for high-resolution imagery.” The NRO supplements the information gathered by their own spy satellites with additional footage purchased from private operators. In fact, Satellogic’s CEO touts the horde of 90+ snooping spacecraft he intends to plant in space to account for the insatiable demand. Soon his company will have the capability to produce a weekly, high-definition “remap” of the entire globe. They can also supply video monitoring and hyperspectral imaging, creating a powerful swarm of surveillance satellites available to a wide-ranging audience outside the public-sector. Last year the company announced a partnership with a Chinese customer, providing them with a, “dedicated satellite constellation.”
BlackSky is another ominously named company racing to gather information and data points from around the globe in order to generate a full spectrum view of a given situation. Billed as a “global monitoring company,” BlackSky doesn’t only use image data to assemble comprehensive insights about a given target. They also incorporate information from social media feeds, localized news, and third-party satellites. The company assimilates all of this data in its homegrown Spectra AI analytics platform and delivers it to paying customers, both commercial and governmental.
BlackSky is set to pop a round of their next generation (Gen-3) satellites into orbit by 2022. These will be higher-resolution models and include the ability to take pictures at night or in darkness. The company has received funding from the Pentagon and recently solidified a deal with the U.S. Army that permits members of the military to commandeer the company’s technology. BlackSky’s CEO has stated that he plans to anchor his business in the government sector, and didn’t mince words when describing the arrangement: “They will own the satellite, and we will help them operate it.”
Maxar, another private player in the industry providing imaging services to the U.S. government, has announced contracts with various agencies, including the NRO. Its WorldView Legion satellites are capable of revisiting specific locations multiple times a day while taking three-dimensional images to within 30 cms. The company describes its product as a “disruptive value to government and commercial customers.” With long-term contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars involved, the definition of “value” is subjective.
Never far from the fray, Elon Musk is also set to lend a hand with the undertaking. The National Reconnaissance Office is hitching a ride aboard one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets to deliver additional “classified payloads” into orbit. Private companies like Satellogic and Maxar are also joining the ride-share, making SpaceX a major accomplice to a growing surveillance state.
On December 16, 2020, San Francisco based company Capella Space announced a revolutionary advancement in invasiveness with 50cm x 50cm resolution and newly-available-to-the-public SAR capabilities (synthetic aperture radar). Their new approach lingers on locations longer to produce clearer and more explicit images. Bolt on the SAR technology that allows their satellites to see through clouds, darkness, and even walls of buildings, and the phrase “nowhere to hide” begins to take on a new meaning. Unsurprisingly, these exclusive developments are only offered to their government clients at the moment.
As the interconnected artificial constellation continues to grow amid threats of lock-downs and curfews back on planet Earth, it’s not hard to imagine more nefarious uses for such a robust means of observation and detection. With technology and launch costs decreasing every year, the ability to track and playback entire portions of the world, from various angles, with extreme resolution, will be accessible to just about anyone. The orbital spy network created by the spreading mass of “Earth-observation” satellites overhead make our small world feel even smaller, while erasing any remaining expectation of privacy.