The global space community woke up to a new reality Wednesday morning.
Elon Musk, the founder of this century’s most innovative space company, successfully used his wealth, time, and energy to elect Donald Trump as President of the United States. Mr. Musk was already the West’s leading player in the space field. SpaceX launches national security satellites and NASA astronauts and operates mega-constellations. He controls machines that provide essential space services to NASA and the U.S. military. And now, thanks to his bet to support Mr. Trump, Mr. Musk has moved powerfully into Mr. Trump’s inner circle.
Mr. Musk may not hold a cabinet-appointed position, but as long as he has a good relationship with Mr. Trump, he will likely have a wide range of portfolios in the new administration. This has given Musk extraordinary powers in many areas, including spaceflight. Already this week he has been soliciting ideas and opinions from his colleagues. of The New York Times reported Musk said he advised Trump to hire key employees from SpaceX to his administration, including the Pentagon. This reflects the huge conflict of interest Musk will face when it comes to space policy. His actions could greatly benefit SpaceX, of which he is majority owner and has final say in major decisions.
That would be a very strange dynamic. There is no doubt that Mr. Musk is in a position to take care of himself. Such conflicts of interest would normally be frowned upon in government, but Mr. Trump has already shown a brazen disregard for norms, and there is no reason to believe that will change in a second term. One way to get around this is to tag Mr. Musk as a “special advisor,” which would mean he no longer has to abide by the following rules: Federal conflict of interest law.
So it’s entirely possible that SpaceX’s current CEO will become the nation’s most important advisor on space policy, a conflict that would be terrible. Musk has flaws as a leader, but it’s hard to argue with the results. His instincts for the industry, such as promoting reusable launches and broadband internet from space, were mostly correct. In a vacuum, it’s not necessarily a bad thing for someone like Musk to provide a vision for 21st century American spaceflight. But while space may be a vacuum, Washington, D.C., is rich in oxygen.
