Trump said he might cut Elon Musk’s government contracts, which are largely centered in his rocket company, SpaceX. That’s a big deal, because the company runs much of our space program. In the last quarter of 2023, SpaceX lifted up 90% of all pounds sent into orbit, which makes it a monopolist in launching satellites. It provides the only vehicle that astronauts have to get to and from the International Space Station.
After Trump threatened Musk today, Musk responded by saying he would use his power to jeopardize U.S. interests.
It’s not clear if he was joking, but even a joke threat makes the point. Decommissioning the Dragon spacecraft would harm the International Space Station and hinder U.S. encrypted communications, some of which flow over Musk’s network.
One result of this fight is that Steve Bannon, a close advisor to Trump, has suggested that Trump use the Defense Production Act - a legacy law from mid-century that allows the government to use civilian industrial capacity for national security purposes - to take over SpaceX.
Bannon is correct in his argument. Something like launch capacity to space, especially when it’s a monopoly, or a vital communications network like Starlink, are too important to be controlled by one guy. And it’s government funded anyway, having received $22 billion in direct Federal monies, and more every year, with immense public support in the form of permissions to launch and knowledge built on top of the public space program.
I disagree. Space X is providing the best service as it has the best technology.
Bannon’s argument isn’t just about seizing private power. It’s true that SpaceX’s rockets that bring satellites into space are reusable and efficient, and his company has won because its technology is better than rivals such as Blue Origin and Boeing. But there’s also a real monopolization problem. Here’s the New York Times discussing the company’s tactics a year ago:
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The new generation of space entrepreneurs trying to emulate Mr. Musk is sufficiently concerned about what they see as his anticompetitive tactics that some of them are now willing to take him on publicly.
Tim Ellis started Relativity Space after being inspired by Mr. Musk’s pursuit of a rocket that could carry humans to Mars. Then he heard from other industry executives that individuals with ties to SpaceX were trying to block his efforts to raise money for his own Mars project.
Peter Beck, an aerospace engineer from New Zealand, met in 2019 with Mr. Musk to talk about Mr. Beck’s own launch company, called Rocket Lab. Several months later, SpaceX moved to start carrying small payloads at a discounted price that Mr. Beck and other industry executives said was intended to undercut their chances of success.
“I don’t think this is an accidental monopoly,” Mr. Beck said in an interview about SpaceX and Mr. Musk. “These are business decisions that are being made.”
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The above to me appears to be hard ball competition.
Though has benefited from his association with the Trump administration.
Before this fight, the cringe adoration for Musk among GOP officials was overwhelming. For instance, the FBI set up a task force to look at anti-Tesla vandalism, every agency investigating parts of Musk’s empire was dismantled, the FCC and Commerce Department redirected broadband subsidies to Starlink, and trade reps helped Musk’s broadband company get contracts in India, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam, and Lesotho, using the threat of tariffs as a lever. The State Department even tried to order $400 million of electric armored cars from Tesla, before being exposed and embarrassed.
In the meantime, yeah, we should treat SpaceX and Starlink like the public utilities they are
Uh NOPE. Sorry. Penalizing a corporate entity because he [Space X’s CEO] is fighting with the president of the United States due to the whim/capricious behavior of the chief executive likely is illegal and an abuse of power.
In my locale we had a similar abuse of power A water coop that provided water service to exurbia areas for decades. The town doubled in population by the town annexing large amount of exurbia. And the town was slow to provide police and fire service to those areas. But they were fast in proceeding with eminent domain to confiscate the water coop & its wells and water tanks for peanuts. The coop owner had to resort to hiring lawyers to obtain adequate compensation.The lawsuit ended up in the state’s supreme court.
