The News
Elon Musk’s SpaceX successfully launched what will be the world’s most powerful rocket on its sixth test flight Tuesday. As Starship lifted off from Boca Chica, Texas, Musk was joined by President-elect, underscoring the pair’s burgeoning relationship and the potential for the space company to gain under the incoming administration.
Musk’s unofficial role in the incoming Trump administration is to cut costs, and while NASA funding has historically been targeted to save money, his own business interests could change that calculus — SpaceX has billions of dollars in contracts from NASA, including to use Starship for human space exploration.
Meanwhile, Trump’s choice of Brendan Carr to lead the Federal Communications Commission may also prove a boon for Musk, analysts have said, because of Carr’s positive stance on Starlink, the company’s satellite internet service.
SIGNALS
SpaceX stands to benefit from Musk in Trump’s ear
Elon Musk has been given the task of reducing the government’s budget by $2 trillion, and frequent cuts target NASA may be back on the chopping block. Musk could recommend closing some of NASA’s ten centers, a “perennial idea often thwarted by senators eager to protect local jobs,” the AFP noted, or shutting down agency programs that monitor climate change. Yet Musk could also use his role to benefit SpaceX, having previously suggested he would kill NASA contracts with Boeing, The New York Times reported, SpaceX’s top industry competitor. Musk could also cut federal regulations, allowing SpaceX to bypass environmental audits and other bureaucracy, the Times wrote, and push NASA to use only the Starship for the agency’s Moon exploration program.
Musk has Trump’s sights set on Mars, but Moon ambitions more realistic
President-elect Trump has suggested he can fulfill Elon Musk’s goal to send humans to Mars. Yet the Moon remains the most likely destination for NASA astronauts for the foreseeable future, according to a space policy expert at The Planetary Society. While the agency will likely see changes to both its budget and timeline for putting astronauts back on the Moon, the US has already poured vast sums into creating the “cis-lunar economy,” which encompasses thousands of satellites and other machines around the Earth and the Moon (of which, Musk owns the majority). China’s moon ambitions are also a motivating factor, and likely “cannot go unmatched,” particularly from a national security standpoint, the expert added.
Space industry already seeing benefits from ‘Trump-Elon trade’
Stock prices for other space companies (SpaceX is a private company and not traded) have rallied since the election, according to CNBC: Shares in Rocket Lab, Intuitive Machines, and Spire Global are all up more than 20% this week. Investors are pointing to what some have called “Trump-Elon trade” for the rise: SpaceX has significantly lowered the cost of launching into space, and traders appear to be confident that it will further solidify its dominant position over the industry, especially it finishes Starship quickly. The rocket is designed to be reusable and carry 100 tons of cargo into space and multiple payloads at once, which could slash costs across the industry: “They all benefit from the lower cost of accessing space,” one industry leader told the outlet.