US President Donald Trump reportedly wanted to cancel government contracts with Elon Musk’s SpaceX after their relationship turned sour.
But now that the Trump team is looking into it, they’re realising it’s not that straightforward. According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump administration staffers have reviewed SpaceX’s agreements with NASA and the Pentagon. They concluded that cancelling them could seriously damage key US space and defence programmes.
What did the review of SpaceX contracts reveal?
The review found that only a few of SpaceX’s current deals might be open to further scrutiny. None have actually been cancelled. That’s because there’s no alternative company that can do the same job as well or as cheaply. SpaceX is the world’s leading launch provider. Last year, it was behind 83% of all satellite launches globally. It’s been a long-time contractor for the US government and plays a vital role in helping Ukraine maintain communications in its war with Russia. So far, Musk’s company has received at least $21 billion from US taxpayers, and another $13 billion is expected.
Isn’t there any competitor to SpaceX?
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is one of the few rivals. In the last round of Trump-era contract awards, it secured seven deals, compared to 28 for SpaceX. But experts say that’s not enough to challenge SpaceX’s dominance. “There’s no replacing SpaceX. You just do not have the capacity in our other launch options,” defence and space expert Todd Harrison told Forbes.
What about Musk’s other companies?
SpaceX isn’t the only Musk firm linked to the government. The Pentagon recently signed a $200 million deal with xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, to work on AI for military use. This happened just after xAI’s chatbot “Grok” sparked controversy by calling itself “MechaHitler” on X. Altogether, Musk has secured $38 billion in US government contracts. That includes $15.7 billion for Tesla alone, many of which were approved during Joe Biden’s presidency.