SpaceX may be guilty of violating regulatory standards by using a classified network of satellites to transmit data to Earth on radio frequencies reserved for uplinking signals, according to a citizen scientist who tracks satellites in Earth orbit.<\/p>\n
Scott Tilley, an amateur satellite tracker in Canada, accidentally detected space-to-Earth emissions on a radio frequency band reserved for transmitting data from Earth to space, NPR first reported<\/a>. The signals were traced to SpaceX\u2019s Starshield, an encrypted version of the Starlink satellites used for national security efforts.<\/p>\n Using an unauthorized frequency to downlink data to Earth violates radio regulations set by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and could potentially interfere with other satellites\u2019 ability to receive signals from Earth, according to a report<\/a> by Tilley.<\/p>\n Going the wrong way <\/p>\n SpaceX first revealed its Starshield constellation in 2022, which leverages the broadband technology of Starlink for use by government agencies. Starshield uses \u201cadditional high-assurance cryptographic capability to host classified payloads and process data securely, meeting the most demanding government requirements,\u201d according to SpaceX<\/a>.<\/p>\n Starshield missions are contracted by U.S. government agencies such as the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the Department of Defense, and the U.S. Space Force. The NRO operates the government\u2019s reconnaissance satellites, possibly using Starshield to carry classified payloads or data. Earlier in September, the NRO sent<\/a> its 11th batch of Starshield satellites to orbit.<\/p>\n Although there\u2019s little information shared about Starshield, Tilley was able to detect signals from 170 satellites in the 2025 to 2110 MHz range. This specific band of the radio spectrum is reserved for uplinking data from Earth to orbiting satellites and therefore should not have any signals going the other way round.<\/p>\n \u201cNearby satellites could receive radio-frequency interference and could perhaps not respond properly to commands\u2014or ignore commands\u2014from Earth,\u201d Tilley told NPR. The satellite enthusiast added that SpaceX may have used the prohibited frequency band to conceal the operations of its Starshield constellation, making the signal more difficult to identify.<\/p>\n Because the ITU doesn\u2019t impose fines for regulatory violations, SpaceX will likely face no consequences for using an unauthorized frequency band or for potentially interfering with other satellite signals. The company is known for pushing regulatory boundaries to further its position as a leader in the industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SpaceX may be guilty of violating regulatory standards by using a classified network of satellites to transmit data…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,8287,141,145,4688,4689],"class_list":{"0":"post-81386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-satellites","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-space","13":"tag-spacex","14":"tag-starlink"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}