SpaceX has been awarded its first confirmed government contract for the Starshield offshoot of the company's Starlink satellite internet network, a U.S. Space Force spokesperson told CNBC Sept. 27.
The spokesperson said that the space exploration company was awarded a year-long contract for Starshield that carries a maximum value of $70 million on Sept. 1.
Related: Elon Musk is frustrated about a major SpaceX roadblock
The contract stipulates that SpaceX be granted $15 million by Sept. 30 to provide services to support mission partners across Department of Defense branches.
“The SpaceX contract provides for Starshield end-to-end service (via the Starlink constellation), user terminals, ancillary equipment, network management and other related services,” Space Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek said.
SpaceX first unveiled Starshield in December of last year as an expansion of its Starlink network that is dedicated to government and military use. The program is focused on Earth observation, global communications and hosted payloads, according to SpaceX's website, and boasts enhanced security measures to protect and process data securely.
"Starlink needs to be a civilian network, not a participant to combat," Musk posted in response to the announcement. "Starshield will be owned by the US government and controlled by DoD Space Force. This is the right order of things."
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Earlier in September, Musk came under fire when the scope of his role in the Ukraine war was revealed in Walter Isaacson's new biography "Elon Musk."
Musk and SpaceX began providing the Ukrainian government Starlink internet access shortly after the invasion began. But when he learned that the Ukrainian military was planning to assault a Russian naval fleet in Crimea, he refused to activate a series of satellites, thus preventing the attack from going through.
Musk continued to restrict Starlink access at various points along the front.
“How am I in this war? Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars," Musk told Isaacson. "It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes.”
The Pentagon in June said it purchased Starlink satellite terminals from SpaceX for use in Ukraine; the scope and cost of the contract remain unknown.
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