How SpaceX became embedded in America's war machine

SpaceX’s years of courting the national-security establishment are paying off.

- Drew FitzGerald

The U.S. government is SpaceX’s largest single client, which the 24-year-old company identified as “Customer A” in securities filings ahead of a planned initial public offering. Revenue from the government, which totaled around $4 billion in 2023, is set to sharply climb over the next few years.

The Elon Musk-led company has combined its ability to pump out satellites and quickly launch rockets with savvy maneuvering of the Pentagon to secure high-value deals. Those agreements are putting SpaceX at the center of military and intelligence agencies’ plans for space.

The Space Force last month awarded SpaceX a $2.3 billion contract to build a satellite communications network for warfare systems and a $4.2 billion contract for satellites to track the movements of missiles and aircraft from orbit. Both projects were fast-tracked through the Pentagon's “other transaction authority,” bypassing many of the regulations that typically slow the process for acquiring weaponry and other technology.

SpaceX is a much smaller government contractor than big defense companies like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. But analysts say SpaceX’s fast-growing work with the military and intelligence agencies could eventually rival the weapon makers’ space businesses.

SpaceX’s role in national security is now so essential that White House officials last year determined the government couldn’t cancel military contracts after Musk feuded with President Trump, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

“They want to be the rails that all of the trains are riding on,” said Kimberly Burke, director of government affairs at research firm Quilty Space. “SpaceX very much wants to be the backbone” of the government's operations in low-Earth-orbit, she added.

SpaceX didn’t respond to requests for comment.