A mission that would have reduced the US government’s dependence on Elon Musk’s SpaceX is ending with the POT turning to her for help, highlighting the influence the billionaire and his private company have over America’s ambitions in outer space.
For years, SpaceX has offered the only human rides to and from the International Space Station aboard American rockets.
Musk’s company is also the world’s leading provider of satellite launches and its Starlink network is the main operator of internet services from low-Earth orbit.
To give itself more options, NASA wanted to use Starliner, a new Boeing Co. spacecraft, for trips to the ISS. Astronauts Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore were the first to fly on Starliner in early June, for what was supposed to be a It would be a visit of approximately one week.
They are still there.
Numerous technical glitches with the space capsule forced NASA to announce on Aug. 24 that the two would be forced to return on a previously scheduled flight in February aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. The move is a major blow to Boeing’s space business and a sign of how dependent NASA has become on Musk’s company for critical space operations.
“NASA always wanted to have more than one option,” but that hasn’t worked out so far, said Carter Palmer, a principal space systems analyst at Forecast International, an aerospace and defense market research firm based in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.
The US space agency has not given up hope that Starliner will launch again with a crew. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told reporters that he is confident that Starliner to launch again with crew.
How many rockets has SpaceX launched into space?
Even before the Starliner crisis, SpaceX’s dominant position in the American space ecosystem had attracted attention, especially among Musk’s critics.
SpaceX has launched more than 80 missions on its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets this year, including several for the U.S. government, compared with just four for rivals United Launch Alliance and 10 for Rocket Lab USA Inc. The space company Musk completed 96 launches in all of 2023.
The market for placing large geostationary satellites into orbit is a “temporary de facto monopoly“SpaceX has launched commercially in 2023,” according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst John Davies. In a July 17 research note, he wrote that “only SpaceX has launched commercially in 2023, though three rivals have had success in 2022,” including ULA and Europe’s Arianespace.
SpaceX also has a big advantage over its rivals when it comes to launching smaller, low-altitude satellites. Its space-based internet service Starlink has more than 6 thousand communications satellites already in operationAmazon has plans to build a rival network, Project Kuiper, but has so far launched only two test satellites.
Starlink’s global reach has extended to the battlefield, including access by unauthorized users in areas subject to U.S. sanctions.
Ukraine has relied on Starlink to provide critical communications services during its war against Russia, and last year Musk alarmed many of his critics by saying he had rejected a request from kyiv to use the network for an attack on Russian targets near the coast of occupied CrimeaEarlier this year, Ukrainian military intelligence said Russian forces were using Starlink terminals on the front lines, though SpaceX has since taken steps to work with U.S. government officials to limit illicit use by Russia.
“Mr. Musk’s potential influence over U.S. foreign policy and recent comments that appear to indicate a disregard for U.S. national security concerns raise questions,” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote in a letter to the U.S. Department of Defense in May.
“This problem is compounded not only by Mr. Musk’s personal wealth, but by the fact that SpaceX appears to have monopoly power over the satellite internet accessspace cargo delivery and passenger travel, a troubling national security issue,” he wrote.
SpaceX secures commercial deals with the Pentagon
SpaceX has a growing portfolio of commercial agreements with the Pentagon. Last September, the company obtained its First US Space Force Contract to provide custom satellite communications for the military.
The Defense Department has rejected concerns that it is overly reliant on SpaceX, with a senior official saying the company provides valuable services to the government, but also noting that the government expects more competition to develop later this decade.
Another American company capable of flying to the ISS is Northrop Grumman Corp., but its Cygnus space freighter operates uncrewed cargo missions, with the most recent arrival at the space station taking place on August 6.
Because it has flown far more missions than any rival, SpaceX is far ahead in creating reliable and safe vehicles, said Jonathan Clark, a clinical professor at the Center for Space Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine whose experience with NASA included serving as crew surgeon on six space shuttle missions.
“The most reliable spacecraft in existence is the Crew Dragon“The important thing is to gain experience and have a solid, proven system, and right now that is Crew Dragon.”
Musk’s growing influence in space comes at a time when he has courted controversy by wading into political issues.
The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla endorsed former President Donald Trump’s re-election bid and called Vice President Kamala Harris, chair of the National Space Council and Trump’s main rival in the US presidential race, “literally communist” in an August 7 post on his social media platform X.
He also stoked criticism this year for ridiculing the policies of US allies such as Australia and the United Kingdom.
Some American astronauts will still be able to travel to the ISS aboard Russian rockets, as the space station is one of the last places where Washington and Moscow are cooperating following President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
NASA astronaut Donald Pettit is scheduled to fly with two cosmonauts on the Russian Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft in September. But NASA does not want to be dependent on Russia, which the U.S. government considers a strategic threat in space.
