Space Force and SpaceX join forces for airborne target tracking and satellite networks ($6B contracts)

The contracts are just rolling in for SpaceX

Sandra Erwin reports it first: “The U.S. Space Force awarded SpaceX a $4.16 billion contract to build a constellation of satellites designed to track airborne targets from orbit, marking one of the Pentagon’s biggest bets yet on shifting battlefield surveillance missions from aircraft to space.”

“The Space-Based Advanced Moving Target Indicator (SB-AMTI) is designed as an interconnected system-of-systems, combining space-based sensors, secure communications links and ​ground processing to drive closer cooperation across the government ​space industrial base.” as Reuters further explains.

Earlier this week, the Space Force awarded SpaceX, which is targeting a valuation of more than $1.75 ​trillion in its initial public offering, a $2.29 billion contract to ​build ⁠a secure, high-speed satellite communications network to connect military sensors and weapons platforms across the globe.

To sum it up, there are two big deals: The $4.16 billion award follows a $2.29 billion Space Data Network Backbone contract, totalling $6.45 billion in Space Force deals this week.

The question that probably comes to mind is exactly when rival satellite networks will be able to reach the scale needed to capitalize on these sort of contracts. Qianfen and OneWeb, two competitors, have fewer than a thousand satellites in their network systems each, with SpaceX’s Starlink network standing as the undisputed hegemon with over 7,000 satellites in the skies above us.

In my eyes, and definitely the eyes of many others, the distribution of satellite networks here is the moat - that first-mover advantage means that the company will continue to passively receive these contracts as the space-based economy grows. Exciting for SpaceX, not so much for competitors.

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NASA Photo of the Day 🌔

Explanation: Newborn stars are forming in the Eagle Nebula. They are gravitationally contracting in pillars of dense gas and dust. The intense radiation of these newly-formed bright stars is causing surrounding material to boil away. This image, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope in near infrared light, allows the viewer to see through much of the thick dust that makes the pillars opaque in visible light. The giant structures are light years in length and dubbed informally the Pillars of Creation. Associated with the open star cluster M16, the Eagle Nebula lies about 6,500 light years away. The Eagle Nebula is a satisfying target for small telescopes in a nebula-rich part of the sky toward the split constellation Serpens Cauda (the tail of the snake).

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Daily Opportunity Drop 🌌

Job openings are available for Eutelsat, which runs OneWeb, here for those of you living in Europe and abroad: https://www.eutelsat.com/group/careers

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