US spy satellites built by SpaceX send signals in the “wrong direction”
About 170 Starshield satellites built by SpaceX for the US government's National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) have been sending signals in the wrong direction, a satellite researcher found.
The SpaceX-built spy satellites are helping the NRO greatly expand its satellite surveillance capabilities, but the purpose of these signals is unknown. The signals are sent from space to Earth in a frequency band that's allocated internationally for Earth-to-space and space-to-space transmissions.
There have been no public complaints of interference caused by the surprising Starshield emissions. But the researcher who found them says they highlight a troubling lack of transparency in how the US government manages the use of spectrum and a failure to coordinate spectrum usage with other countries.