Elon Musk’s Bid to Shift the Global Balance of Power

Even though SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has no qualms lashing out at regulators, officials at the Pentagon, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of Defense and Federal Aviation Administration have come to recognize his influence, with many of them deferentially treating him like an unelected official, The New Yorker reports.

“The government is now reliant on him, but struggles to respond to his risk-taking, brinkmanship and caprice,” writes Ronan Farrow.

This is why—even as Musk’s vision for humanity’s endeavors in space and contributions to Ukraine’s defense against Russia through his Starlink internet network, continue to expand his power—it was somewhat of a surprise Thursday when the U.S. Justice Department sued Musk-owned rocket and satellite company SpaceX for allegedly discriminating against asylum seekers and refugees in its hiring practices.

The extensive expose vacillates between portraying Musk as a brilliant, impulsive visionary, and a pragmatic capitalist with Republican-leaning instincts.

Transcending these characterizations is the fact that national security officials and NASA have come to accept Musk as a technology, communications and space race leader, according to the extensive profile, based on interviews with 30 current and former Musk colleagues.

SpaceX is at the heart of all of the serial entrepreneur’s enterprises, as well as Musk’s psyche. SpaceX is by far the most formidable of the private space exploration companies, including Jeff Bezos’s Blue Horizon and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.

NASA relies exclusively on SpaceX to transport U.S. crews into space and will continue to depend on Musk’s company for at least the next year.

The mercurial billionaire espouses not just mankind’s future by landing a manned spaceship on Mars—but much more critically, how the new space race can reshape the global balance of power.

“The U.S. government is in massive catch-up to build a more resilient space architecture,” says Colin Kahl, former under-secretary of defense for policy at the Pentagon. “And that only works if you can leverage the explosion of commercial space.”

Some applaud Musk’s ability to cut through the red tape of stringent regulations and safety protocols to get things done.

“When SpaceX and NASA work together, we work closer to optimal speed,” says Kenneth Bowersox, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations.

For others, Musk’s undue influence is discomforting.

“There is only one thing worse than a government monopoly,” says Jim Bridenstine, former NASA administrator. “And that is a private monopoly that the government is dependent on. I do worry that we have put all of our eggs into one basket—and it’s the SpaceX basket.”

Regardless of one’s ease with Musk’s power or political inclinations, he has become a power player to contend with. Musk has cozied up to China through his electric vehicle company Tesla, and is a formidable presence there.

SpaceX has gotten at least $15.3 billion in subsidies from the U.S. government in the past 20 years, and the Biden administration, in its frantic quest to reduce U.S. reliance on fossil fuels, has come to the conclusion that it needs to work with Musk.

That includes aiding Tesla and its expanding network of charging stations. Even GM and Mercedes are joining Tesla’s charging network.

Another factor: Musk’s $231 billion personal wealth eclipses the entire budget of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, which has continued to find problems with the Tesla autopilot and self-driving cars.

Summing up the Biden administration’s and the U.S. government’s attitude toward Musk, Jordan Barab, former deputy assistant secretary of labor at OSHA, perhaps says it best:

“You add on the fact that he considers himself to be a Master of the Universe, and these rules just don’t apply to people like him.”