SpaceX is reportedly ready to treat the US military as a customer for its advance space fleet technology. This collaboration would see the military have access to SpaceX’s next generation of Starships as well as its Starlink satellites.

SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer, Gwynne Shotwell, on Wednesday appeared at a conference held alongside the US military who talked about their efforts to modernise the force and bring it up to date in the latest weaponry and technology. Ms Shotwell gave a brief outline of SpaceX’s history and the transportation systems it has built in recent years. Following the discussion, Ms Shottwell told SpaceNews that SpaceX viewed the US military as a potential customer for its services and products. She said: “We’re talking to the Army about Starlink and Starship.”

SpaceX are ready to view the US military as a customer

Musk is advancing with his space fleet program rapidly

SpaceX founder Elon Musk wants Starship to be the first space craft to take humans to Mars and return them safely. He plans to use the new vehicles to send people to the Moon, Mars, and also to move at never before seen speeds across the globe. The ability to move people around the Earth swiftly is something that the US military has reportedly been interested in. Although the military doesn’t launch big satellites or send crews to space, it could conceivably use Starship to deliver cargo halfway around the world in minutes, according to SpaceNews. JUST IN: SpaceX news: Elon Musk is the Thomas Edison of the 21st century

His Starship will be ready for test flights in the next few months

The Starship prototype

Donald Trump is keen to advance the US' presence in space

“So that giant thing, it's really going be pretty epic to see that thing take off and come back." Asides from rapid developments with the Starship, SpaceX recently filed documents with telecommunications authorities that reveal its plans to launch 30,000 small satellites into space, with Mr Musk planning to launch 20 batches of 1,500 into space at a time. This is triple the amount ever launched by humans in history. Though Ms Shottwell didn’t mention Starlink during the discussion with the US military, SpaceNews reports that the company is interested in securing the military as a customer for its mass broadband plan.

NASA has suffered financial loss in recent years

The Starlink service looks to blanket the Earth in a mesh of high-speed, low-latency and affordable internet access. Even partial deployment of Starlink would help those back on Earth, providing more rural areas of the planet the opportunity to access the internet. As well as providing high-speed internet, the satellites will also be well situated for Earth observation. Operating within orbits of between 330 and 580 kilometres above Earth, the vessels would have the capacity to take high resolution pictures or videos of the Earth’s surface.

60 Starlink satellites stacked for launch at SpaceX facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida

Trending