{"id":274910,"date":"2025-11-21T06:13:05","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T06:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/274910\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T06:13:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T06:13:05","slug":"spacex-has-wildly-screwed-up-its-military-satellites-researcher-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/274910\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX Has Wildly Screwed Up Its Military Satellites, Researcher Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"archive-post-thumb article-featured-image w-full h-auto mb-3\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/spacex-starlink-nro-tilley.jpg\"   fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1365\" alt=\"A researcher uncovered evidence that 171 SpaceX Starlink satellites used by the US government were broadcasting in the &quot;wrong direction.&quot;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tIllustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins \/ Futurism. Source: Kevork Djansezian \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"pw-incontent-excluded article-paragraph skip\">A new fleet of US spy satellites might be in huge trouble thanks to Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX, at least according to one engineer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">Scott Tilley, a satellite researcher based out of British Colombia, uncovered evidence that some 171 SpaceX-built Starshield satellites have been broadcasting signals in the wrong direction, <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/2025\/11\/us-spy-satellites-built-by-spacex-send-signals-in-the-wrong-direction\/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">according to Ars Technica<\/a>. The satellites were operated as part of the US government\u2019s National Reconnaissance Office <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/science\/2024\/11\/nro-chief-you-cant-hide-from-our-new-swarm-of-spacex-built-spy-satellites\/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">surveillance program<\/a>, which is meant to expand the country\u2019s ability to spy over other nations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">According to Ars, Tilley discovered the SpaceX satellites were using a frequency which is internationally designated for Earth-to-space and space-to-space transmissions. Flubbing a satellite broadcast on over one hundred spacecraft isn\u2019t exactly a small issue; though no overt disruptions were officially reported, the satellite constellation had the ability to cause issues with ground transmissions, telecomm services, and TV broadcasts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">By analyzing errant signals in the 2025-2110 MHz band, Tilley was able to confirm that the NRO satellites had broadcasted their signals over the US, Canada, and Mexico, with likely incursions into other nations as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">\u201cThis particular band is allocated by the ITU [International Telecommunication Union], the United States, and Canada primarily as an uplink band to spacecraft on orbit \u2014 in other words, things in space, so satellite receivers will be listening on these frequencies,\u201d he told Ars. \u201cIf you\u2019ve got a loud constellation of signals blasting away on the same frequencies, it has the potential to interfere with the reception of ground station signals being directed at satellites on orbit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">In the US and abroad, the 2025\u20132110 MHz band is primarily used by spacefaring agencies like NASA, meaning the Starshield satellites have the potential to disrupt important broadcasts from orbit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">\u201cAny other radio activity that\u2019s occurring on this band is intentionally limited to avoid causing disruption to its primary purpose,\u201d Tilley told Ars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">More on satellites: <a href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/science-energy\/researchers-satellites-military\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Researchers Alarmed to Discover Satellites Broadcasting Unencrypted Military Secrets<br \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins \/ Futurism. Source: Kevork Djansezian \/ Getty Images A new fleet of US spy&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-274910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}