I am confused about the role of Mr. Musk at SpaceX.
The news is reporting that Mr. Musk may have trouble accessing some of the SpaceX facilities because he lacks a security clearance due to his questionable behavior with drugs and foreign officials. And yet the same reports note that his upcoming job with the Trump administration’s new Department of Government Efficiency may provide him with those security clearances anyway.
So we are to believe that Mr. Musk is a security risk in the private sector, but his quasi-governmental role will make all of those concerns moot? It sounds like you can buy yourself a security clearance in this country at the right price (in this case, by financing a presidential campaign), national security be damned.
And now we hear that he has been sending tweets supporting Nazi-adjacent parties in Germany. I don’t think this is the best way to gain or maintain a high level security clearance in any democratic nation.
I am hoping someone inside government follows up on these issues. The companies under his control remain deeply embedding in the U.S. Government in highly critical areas.
It does appear the various military branches have concerns about his behavior and have initiated investigations. However, none of this appears to be slowing down his movement into a government position. For all we know, while these reviews are underway Mr. Musk will be given access to even more secrets, including highly-classified military secrets, as part of his role to reduce the size of the government.
And if that is the case, who in the various government agencies will question him when he can recommend the elimination of the party making the complaint? As they say, the caller is in the house.
None of this sounds very good for the space industry or the Nation as a whole.
Image (Credit): The Roman god Mars. (worldhistory.org)
While Elon Musk has talked endlessly about going to Mars with his Starship, it seems the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) in the service of Mars, God of War, has other ideas for his rocket.
A recent Washington Post article, “Elon Musk’s Martian Dreams are a Boon to the U.S. military,” stated that DOD is looking to use the Starship for Earthbound battles, such as the quick deployment of soldiers and materiel into the Chinese theater. Sending rockets directly into the war zone with troops and supplies can turn a multi-week trip into a 90 minute trip. Another option is to keep key military supplies in Low-Earth Orbit so that they can be timely delivered when needed (in the way the DOD already pre-positions military equipment at sea and elsewhere).
The article states that the U.S. Air Force already has a five-year contract with SpaceX to make this rocket-based delivery possible. Space News reported on the $102 million contract award to SpaceX back in January 2022, which was to help “determine exactly what a rocket can achieve when used for cargo transport, what is the true capacity, speed, and cost of the integrated system.” A similar contract was awarded to Blue Origin in December 2021.
The space domain remains completely underdeveloped regarding providing terrestrial materiel support and offers an ideal platform to sustain smaller units of action within the joint force, which would otherwise divert aircraft or naval vessels that could be used to support larger formations…Space-based logistics can facilitate the delivery of blood, weapons, 3D-printed parts, power, and food to the joint force and has the potential for delivery time to be measured in minutes, not hours or days. The impetus for this idea can be traced to the Cold War.
The Army story makes reference to a separate 2022 The Journal of theJoint Forces Staff College article, “The World in 90 Minutes or Less: Rocket Logistics and Future Military Operations,” that discusses the pros and cons of this rocket-based approach. The article also cites numerous companies in addition to SpaceX that should be considered for this new approach, including United Launch Alliance (ULA), Rocket Lab, Northrop Grumman, and Blue Origin.
In terms of advantages, the journal article notes:
The most significant difference between Rocket Logistics and conventional methods is the speed of delivery; rockets are expected to transport tons of material across the planet in under ninety minutes by using an orbital trajectory to reduce transit time. This presents a variety of logistical options to deliver valuable cargo within tactically relevant timelines, as opposed to hours or days (e.g. fourteen hours of flight time for a plane traveling from New York City to Nairobi, Kenya). The second advantage of Rocket Logistics is that movement above 100 kilometers in altitude is not governed by national airspace regulations. This means that the rocket would only need permission to access the nation’s airspace from which it departed and the nation in which it will land.
Of course, there are some limitations, including limited launch facilities, specific fuel needs, long turnaround time, and G-forces that may limit the types of cargo carried. For instance, the journal article notes:
While cargo aircraft are relatively sedentary in their acceleration profiles, a rocket can produce more G-forces than fighter aircraft. NASA and civilian space companies recognize this and limit flight parameters for the protection of cargo. Despite acceleration limitations, G-forces must be considered when planning the operational usage of rocket cargo.
There is a lot of money to be made in wars, and potentially more ongoing demand than a risky mission to Mars. Is this the future of SpaceX? Will it become further wrapped into the military-industrial complex (with its Starlink and other assets) at the expense of missions off planet?
The planned review of NASA and other federal agencies by the Trump administration may have an answer. But one thing you can be sure of, particularly with Musk in the middle of the review, is that SpaceX will be making plenty of money whether its goal is landing on the Red Planet or defeating Red China.
Image (Credit): NASA’s Space Launch System on the tarmac. (NASA)
“To be clear, we are far from anything being settled, but based on what I’m hearing it seems at least 50-50 that Nasa’s Space Launch System rocket will be canceled.”
Image (Credit): The return of the Starship booster on November 19, 2024. It splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico. (SpaceX)
The sixth test of SpaceX’s Starship was a success this past Tuesday, even without the repeated stunt of a tower capturing the booster rocket. The launch from the Starbase pad in Brownsville, Texas allowed SpaceX to test additional features related to the rocket, including igniting one of its Raptor engines while in space. Overall, it was a quick turnaround from another successful test flight last month.
SpaceX also received additional good news this week when it learned that Colorado-based Lunar Outpost selected SpaceX’s Starship as the party to deliver its lunar rover to the Moon. Lunar Outpost is one of several companies working with NASA to ensure a rover is on the lunar surface as part of the Artemis mission. NASA has yet to select one or more companies to build and test the rovers on the Moon.
All of this is good news for SpaceX and NASA, assuming the Starship stays on schedule, NASA funding of Artemis continues, and a new administration in DC continues to support the Artemis approach.
Credit: Image by Patrick Pascal Schauß from Pixabay
“Elon’s interest in small government exceeds Elon’s interest in space architecture…The challenges, I think, NASA faces are much more organizational and cultural than they are technical.”
–Statement by Greg Autry, who is currently associate provost for space commercialization and strategy at the University of Central Florida, but earlier served on the first Trump administration’s NASA transition team. The comment was in reference to the recent announcement that Elon Musk was one of the individuals selected to head the new ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ in the Trump administration. Of course, given that Mr. Musk’s SpaceX provides the space architecture, I doubt personal enrichment will be far from his mind. I hope the first thing the new “department” does is set up an ethics office to ensure its members are not lining their own pockets while “reforming” government.
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