According to Golden Finance, after the fierce dispute between entrepreneur Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump, the role of SpaceX, the company led by Musk, in the “Dome” missile defense system that Trump is vigorously promoting, is facing widespread criticism from the outside world.
Previously, several people familiar with the matter disclosed to Reuters on April 17 that SpaceX and two Silicon Valley companies – drone manufacturer Anduril and software company Parantir – are expected to win the procurement contract for key components of the “Dome” system. According to the plan reported by the three enterprises to the Trump administration, they plan to build and launch over 400 to 1,000 Earth-orbiting satellites for sensing and tracking missiles. Additionally, they will form a constellation of 200 attack satellites to shoot down enemy missiles with missiles or laser weapons. However, SpaceX stated that it will not be involved in the weaponization of satellites. According to its estimation, the initial engineering and design costs of the “satellite monitoring layer” orbiting the Earth range from 6 to 10 billion US dollars.
However, as the relationship between Trump and Musk broke down due to the “Big and Beautiful” bill, the situation changed. On June 5 local time, when Trump met with German Chancellor Metz at the White House, he said he was disappointed with Musk and accused Musk of only raising objections when the “mandate” for electric vehicles involved his own interests. Musk promptly refuted through social media platforms, claiming that he had never seen the bill. Since then, the two sides have been trading back and forth. Trump hinted at cancelling government subsidies and contracts related to Musk, while Musk threatened to retire the “Dragon spacecraft” that the United States relies on for space launches.
Against this backdrop of tense relations, SpaceX’s prospects in the “Dome” system have become unclear. On the one hand, its competitors are eyeing the relevant contracts greentily. Established military industrial enterprises Northrop Grumman, Boeing and Raytheon Technologies have all participated in the competition for the “Dome” system project. Lockheed Martin has even set up a dedicated webpage for this system. On the other hand, given the heavy reliance of the US space program on SpaceX, the US government and NASA have begun an urgent search for a replacement, inquiring about the rocket development progress of commercial space companies such as Rocket Lab, Stoke Space, and Blue Origin, as well as the time they will provide launch services for government missions.
In addition, the “Golden Dome” system itself has also been highly controversial. This system was required to be built by the executive order signed by Trump on January 27th, aiming to deal with what is called “the most catastrophic threat facing the United States” – missile attacks. It is planned to build a satellite cluster consisting of thousands of small satellites, including missile detection satellites and missile destruction satellites, with an estimated cost of up to 175 billion US dollars. However, many experts have questioned its feasibility, arguing that the system is “poorly conceptually, expensive and fragile”, and faces huge challenges in both technological research and development and financial allocation. Moreover, the three-year “full operation” schedule set by Trump has also increased the difficulty of project implementation. Meanwhile, this system blatantly increases the means of outer space operations, violates the principle of peaceful utilization advocated by the Outer Space Treaty, and intensifies the risks of outer space battlefields and arms races.
At present, the specific direction of SpaceX in the “Dome” missile defense system remains highly uncertain, and its subsequent development deserves continuous attention.
Related Topics:
