The spy network revealed in two Reuters reports earlier this year that SpaceX is building hundreds of satellites for the US National Reconnaissance Office, an intelligence agency, for a vast system in orbit that can rapidly detect ground targets anywhere in the world. Northrop Grumman NOC. Long-term aerospace and defence contractor N is also involved in the project.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Southern California at 4 a.m. Wednesday. About half a dozen experiments supporting the NRO architecture are planned for 2024, with additional experiments expected by 2028.

Militaries and surveillance agencies around the world are increasingly relying on Earth-orbiting satellites to aid ground operations, a trend that has been accelerated in part by decreasing costs of keeping objects in space and developing threats to traditional acquisition methods on the ground or in the air.

The satellite network for NRO also shows how much the US government has come to rely on ELAN USK's SpaceX for some of its most sensitive missions. The company dominated the US rocket launch market and became the world's largest satellite operator with the Starlink network, a commercial system of broadband Internet satellites.