Bloomberg: Spy Satellite Agency Has Plans to Quadruple US Eyes in the Sky
(Bloomberg) — The US intelligence agency that develops and buys spy satellites plans a fourfold increase by 2033 in orbiting spacecraft like those now being used to monitor Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Within the next decade we expect to quadruple the number of satellites we currently have on orbit,” the National Reconnaissance Office, once a super-secret agency, said in a statement Wednesday. “These satellites — large and small, in multiple orbits” will collect and transmit “ten times as many signals and images as we’re getting now, and will engage a mix of government and commercial systems.”
Competition for the lucrative Pentagon contracts to launch those satellites will pit billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX against the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of top contractors Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co. Blue Origin LLC, founded by Amazon.com Inc. Chairman Jeff Bezos, is also trying to qualify for military launches.
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Update: SPACE SYMPOSIUM NEWS: NRO to Quadruple Satellites on Orbit Over Next Decade (National Defense)
WNU Editor: Space is going to be a crowded place in the coming years.