NASA to test SpaceX’s Starshield in pilot program

WASHINGTON — NASA plans to test SpaceX’s Starshield satellite network, designed primarily for national security customers, to support operations of the agency’s Deep Space Network.

In a Dec. 11 procurement filing, NASA said it intends to issue a sole-source contract to SpaceX for Starshield terminals and data services. The filing, which serves as notice to other companies capable of providing similar services, did not disclose the value of the planned contract.

The award includes seven Starshield terminals to be installed at the three Deep Space Network sites in Australia, California and Spain. It also includes eight data subscriptions, each providing five terabytes per month of data transfer using what the filing describes as a “continuous, government-only encrypted data service.”

The procurement describes the effort as a six-month pilot program by NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program, known as SCaN, to provide redundant communications links among the three DSN sites.

“NASA’s SCaN Program requires secure satellite-based data transport services to enhance the resiliency and diversity of the Deep Space Network,” the statement of work says. “This six-month pilot will demonstrate Starshield’s ability to augment existing terrestrial fiber with a secure, flexible and redundant communication path.”

Starshield is an offshoot of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation intended to provide communications, imaging and other services, primarily for national security customers. SpaceX promotes Starshield on its website but offers few details about the network, including the number of satellites and their specific capabilities.

One area SpaceX does highlight is secure communications. “Starlink already offers unparalleled end-to-end user data encryption,” the company says on its website. “Starshield uses additional high-assurance cryptographic capability to host classified payloads and process data securely, meeting the most demanding government requirements.”

That emphasis appears to be a factor in NASA’s decision to use Starshield for the pilot program. The statement of work requires “data integrity and encryption utilizing AES 128 encryption or better,” a reference to a federal encryption standard, as well as safeguards for NASA data in accordance with government controlled unclassified information and export control requirements.

NASA has not previously discussed publicly the use of Starshield to support the Deep Space Network or other agency operations. Recent agency discussions about the DSN have focused on managing growing demand for communications services, an issue compounded by outages such as damage to one of the network’s largest antennas, a 70-meter dish in California, that took it offline in September.

NASA is separately working with SpaceX and several other companies on its Communications Services Project, which seeks to use commercial space systems to augment or replace agency-owned communications assets for spacecraft in Earth orbit. SpaceX’s role in that project involves demonstrating an optical relay network in low Earth orbit using Starlink satellites and does not mention Starshield.