Following a heated debate between billionaire Elon Musk and current US President Donald Trump on social media, the White House began reviewing SpaceX’s government contracts. The goal: to find ways to put pressure on the richest man in the world. But, it turned out that clipping the wings of a space giant is much more difficult than it seemed.
Attempted to exert pressure – unsuccessful
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Trump administration has initiated a large-scale review of SpaceX’s contracts with the Pentagon and NASA. The team looked for unnecessary expenses or opportunities to delegate work to competitors at a lower cost. However, most agreements were recognized as critical to national security and the space program. The efforts were largely unsuccessful – the vast majority of contracts remained untouched.
The most threatening project for SpaceX was the Golden Dome missile defense system. According to Reuters, the Trump administration is now actively seeking alternatives to Musk’s company, previously considered the favorite. Such actions are a direct consequence of the conflict. However, Musk stated on social network X (Twitter) back in April that he was not interested in government contracts: “SpaceX prefers to deliver humanity to Mars.”
SpaceX has not tried to bid for any contract in this regard.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 17, 2025
Our strong preference would be to stay focused on taking humanity to Mars.
If the President asks us to help in this regard, we will do so, but I hope that other companies (not SpaceX) can do this.
The Trump administration considers Jeff Bezos Amazon’s Project Kuiper, a fierce competitor to Musk in the satellite internet market, to be one of the contenders for government contracts instead of SpaceX.
Why can’t the US abandon SpaceX?
The secret to Musk’s sustainability is the deep integration of his technologies into government systems:
- The Crew Dragon spacecraft is the only vehicle capable of transporting people to the ISS since the termination of the Space Shuttle program. The Boeing Starliner could have been an alternative, but the spacecraft proved to be unreliable.
- Dozens of contracts for satellite launches for the Ministry of Defense through the Starshield program.
- Reusable Falcon rockets have dramatically reduced the cost of access to space, making SpaceX an indispensable economic partner for the government and the Department of Defense.
Despite Trump’s desire to harm Musk, the US government found itself trapped by its own dependence on SpaceX’s innovations. The cancellation of key contracts threatens the country’s security and space program.
The conflict between personalities does not change the cold calculation: SpaceX’s technological monopoly in the launch sector makes it virtually invulnerable to political pressure. The battle of the titans continues, but Musk’s space fortress seems to remain inviolable.
Earlier, we reported on how the ambitious Starship super-heavy rocket project was considered unviable.
