SpaceX's Starshield: US Government Satellites Using Blocked Frequencies
With Starshield, SpaceX provides governments with satellites. It has now been discovered that they are apparently communicating on a blocked frequency.
Starshield satellite in space
(Image: SpaceX)
Satellites manufactured by SpaceX but controlled by the US government are apparently transmitting data to Earth, at least temporarily, on frequencies that international regulations reserve exclusively for transmissions towards orbit. This was discovered by a hobby astronomer by chance, reports the US news site NPR. The background is unclear, neither SpaceX nor the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which is responsible for operating the satellites, have commented on this so far. It is possible that those responsible decided to use a mostly empty frequency band and ask for permission later. So far, the action has apparently had no consequences. It is unknown how long this has been happening.
The signals were discovered by Scott Tilley, who regularly observes satellites, with his own technology. He told NPR, that he stumbled upon the signals completely by chance, as they were being transmitted in the wrong frequency range. He found them in the range between 2025 and 2110 MHz, but only ground stations are supposed to transmit or satellites communicate with each other in this range. Based on data from other amateurs, he then determined that the signals originate from Starshield satellites. These are built by SpaceX for the US government, and their exact tasks are unknown.
No Reports of Interference
The finding was confirmed to NPR by Kevin Gifford, a computer scientist at the University of Colorado. However, he cannot say whether the signals are a problem, the portal quotes him. The researcher speculates that the satellites' messages are intended to be somewhat hidden in that frequency range. The fact that the exact frequency is constantly changing also speaks for this. However, it is also conceivable that those responsible are simply occupying a comparatively empty band and intend to ask for permission later. After all, there are comparatively few signals in Earth orbit, which is why the frequency range is largely unused. This is also evident from the fact that there have apparently been no complaints so far.
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Starshield is a satellite program from SpaceX, which is explicitly aimed at government agencies. It covers the three areas of Earth observation, communication, and booked payloads. SpaceX promises its government customers particularly high security, modular design, and interoperability. While SpaceX has already launched more than 10.000 satellites into space for its in-house and commercial internet service Starlink, of which more than 8.600 are active, currently only 199 Starshield satellites are in operation. How exactly the responsibility for operation is distributed and who decided to use the prohibited frequencies is unclear. Tilley has made his collected data publicly available.
(mho)
