The 2026 launch of NROL-105, a Starshield mission.
Starshield is a division of SpaceX's Starlink subsidiary creating purpose-built low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites designed to provide new military space capabilities to the United States and allied governments. Starshield was adapted from the global communications network Starlink but has additional capabilities, such as target tracking, optical and radio reconnaissance, and early missile warnings. Primary customers include the Space Development Agency (SDA), National Reconnaissance Office, and the United States Space Force. NROL-105, launched on 16 January 2026, was the twelfth launch of the National Reconnaissance Office's proliferated constellation, which the agency says has hundreds of satellites in orbit.
While SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell has indicated that there is little information she is allowed to disclose about Starshield, she has noted "very good collaboration" between the intelligence community and SpaceX on the program. The U.S. Congressional Research Service reports that future satellites in Starshield's participating SDA program may wield interceptor missiles, hypersonic projectiles, or directed energy weapons, with the program's founder adding "since Reagan’s day, technology has advanced enough that putting both sensors and shooters in space is not only possible but relatively easy." According to SDA director Derek Tournear, later satellites will take on the “extremely difficult” task of maintaining contact with missiles in flight.
The retired four-star general Terrence O'Shaughnessy, who previously ran U.S. Northern Command, is the vice president for SpaceX's Special Programs Group, which is thought to be involved with Starshield. The Wall Street Journal reported that Starshield's online job postings required people with top-secret clearances, as well as experience working with the Defense Department and intelligence community, e.g. for representing Starshield to Pentagon combatant commands. For weapons manufacturing, eight senior Starshield leaders formed an additional company, Castelion, to develop mass-produced hypersonic strike weapons, potentially for use as space-based interceptors.
The first satellites were designed for the SDA and outfitted with advanced infrared sensors meant to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles. In 2021, Starshield had entered a $1.8billion classified contract with the U.S. government, revealed in 2023, to construct hundreds of spy satellites for continuous real-time monitoring of targets around the globe. Launches of the NRO's proliferated constellation began in May 2024 with NROL-146. These satellites are made in cooperation with Northrop Grumman.
The Starshield name was publicly announced December 2022, but in 2021 Starshield had already entered a $1.8billion classified contract with the U.S. government, revealed in 2023. In the documents of the contract, SpaceX says that funds from the contract were expected to become an important part of the revenue mix of the company after 2021. Reuters revealed in 2024 that this contract was between the National Reconnaissance Office and SpaceX, and for a spy satellite network consisting of hundreds of satellites functioning as a swarm. The satellites will have imaging capabilities, and the satellite network will enable the US government to have continuous surveillance of nearly anywhere around the globe. Starshield also plans to be more resilient to attack from other powers. Northrop Grumman was selected to partner with SpaceX, with insiders noting that "it is in the government's interest to not be totally invested in one company run by one person".
In October 2020, SDA awarded SpaceX an initial $150 million dual-use contract to develop 4 satellites to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles. The first batch of satellites were originally scheduled to launch September 2022 to form part of the Tracking Layer Tranche0 of the Space Force's National Defense Space Architecture. The launch was rescheduled multiple times but it eventually launched in April 2023.
In 2020, SpaceX hired previously retired four-star general Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy who according to some sources is associated with Starlink's military satellite development and according to one source is listed as a "chief operating officer" at SpaceX. While still in active duty, O'Shaughnessy advocated before the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services for a layered capability with lethal follow-on that incorporates machine learning and artificial intelligence to gather and act upon sensor data quickly. As of 2024, Terrence O’Shaughnessy reportedly has had a high-level role at Starshield.
SpaceX was not awarded a contract for the larger Tranche 1, with awards going to York Space Systems, Lockheed Martin Space, and Northrop Grumman Space Systems.
As Starlink was being relied on in the Russo-Ukrainian war, expert on battlefield communications Thomas Wellington argued that Starlink signals, because they use narrow focused beams, are less vulnerable to interference and jamming by the enemy in wartime than satellites flying in higher orbits. being developed using this technology, it was being used by the military and "can be integrated onto partner satellites to enable incorporation into the Starshield network." Therefore, if the military needed the use of SpaceX satellites through the Starshield program, SpaceX "currently has over 3,000 satellites in low Earth orbit that beam the signal back to users' receiver dishes."
Another Starshield contract was announced in September 2023, involving communications-focused services for U.S. Space Systems Command. This contract with the US Space Force plans to provide customized satellite communications for the military. This is under the Space Force's new "Proliferated Low Earth Orbit" program for LEO satellites, where Space Force will allocate initially up to $900million worth of contracts over 10years, with 16 vendors initially selected. In 2024 the program's ceiling was raised to $13billion. The one-year Starshield contract was awarded on September1, 2023. The contract is expected to support 54 mission partners across the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard.
In February 2024, the United States House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party sent a letter to Elon Musk stating that the Starshield program was potentially in breach of contract for not providing access to U.S. troops stationed in Taiwan when "global access" was "possibly" required by the contract. SpaceX responded that they were in full compliance with their U.S. government contracts. SpaceX had notified the Select Committee a week earlier that they were misinformed, but the Select Committee "chose to contact media before seeking additional information [regarding Starshield military use in Taiwan]".
In the context of military communication satellites, Col. Eric Felt, director of space architecture at the office of the assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration, said that there are plans to acquire at least 100 Starshield-branded satellites for this purpose by 2029. He said that while the military is an active user of SpaceX's commercial Starlink service, they also want to take advantage of the company's dedicated Starshield product line. Clare Hopper, head of the Space Force's Commercial Satellite Communications Office (CSCO) stated that demand for Starlink's commercial service is "off the charts" and that currently all of their supported users are still using the commercial Starlink satellite constellation, but that the DoD has "unique service plans that contain privileged capabilities and features that are not available commercially".
Between 2025 and 2026, the British military purchased about 1,000 Starshield terminals, and about 500 Starlink terminals intended for morale, welfare, recreation and training purposes. Reuters reported that the Starshield terminals cost between £4,000 and £7,000 each, and two monthly data plans were available for these terminals: £5,500 per five terabytes or £25,000 for unlimited data.
On 14 October 2026, Musk said the Ukrainian military was using the US government owned and controlled Starshield system, not Starlink, and the recent change to restrict operational user terminals to those travelling at less than 100mph (160km/h) was a US government decision and not his decision. This restriction disabled a type of interceptor that targeted Russian jet-powered Shahed drones, according to Serhiy Beskrestnov, an adviser on military technology to Zelenskyy. However, on 24 October, Musk alleged that Ukraine had violated Starlink's terms of service by using the system for offensive drone strikes. SpaceX subsequently clarified in a letter to Congress that the changes were made to Starlink.
Space-to-ground signal
NPR reported in October 2025 that the Starshield network had begun sending unknown communications from the satellite constellation to targets on Earth in a downlink, transmitting data from space to land. The involved spectrum and signal range involved are normally reserved by international standards for uplinks, or sending data from land to space, violating International Telecommunication Union standards and risking harm to other satellites and their communications. The ongoing incident involving the classified American satellite constellation was discovered by a hobbyist astronomer in British Columbia. The unknown signals are all reported to be in the 2025–2110MHz range.
Launches
Between 2020 and March 2024, a dozen Starshield prototypes and operational satellites were launched on Falcon9. Reuters reported that these satellites have never been acknowledged by SpaceX or the US government and remain classified.
Images were posted online of the two SpaceX-built Space Development Agency Tranche0 Flight1 Tracking Layer infrared imaging satellites that launched on 2April 2023. After the launch of Starlink Group 7-16, only 20 of a batch of 22 starlink satellites were catalogued, and the remaining two were later designated as USA-350 and USA-351.
Likely operational Starshield satellites. Hosts infrared payloads manufactured by Leidos. Launched with 8 York Space Systems-built Transport layer satellites on this mission.
Likely operational Starshield satellites. Hosts infrared payloads manufactured by Leidos. Launched with one York Space Systems-built and 10 Lockheed Martin/Tyvak Space Systems-built Transport layer satellites on this mission.
Launched as a part of NROL-57 mission. Based on the number of gaps in the catalog it appears that this launch only deployed 11 payloads, likely indicating a larger Starshield version.
Launched as a part of NROL-145 mission. First NRO Proliferated Architecture Mission launch in partnership with USSF under the NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 contract.
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).
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