These are simply the newest examples of how the federal authorities has no sensible technique to break with Mr. Musk, at the very least so long as america decides it is going to proceed to discover area and deter its greatest great-power rivals. It could denounce him and declare that each one Individuals ought to reject his views. Nevertheless it wants it, or at the very least its missiles and satellites, greater than ever.
The White Home and the Pentagon know this.
Not often has the U.S. authorities relied a lot on know-how supplied by a single, albeit abrasive, technologist with publicly repugnant views. Nonetheless, by administration officers’ calculations, they haven’t any alternative — and will not for some time. As a result of there are at present just a few viable alternate options.
It is an uncommon predicament. If a senior government at one of many conventional protection contractors — Raytheon, Boeing or Lockheed Martin — espoused an anti-Semitic conspiracy principle in the way in which Mr. Musk did, there could be strain from shareholders and clients alike to resign. In truth, advertisers like IBM, Apple, and Warner Bros. Discovery introduced in latest days that they’ll quickly cease doing enterprise on X, previously often known as Twitter. As a substitute of apologizing, Mr. Musk threatened to file lawsuits.
However SpaceX is privately owned, and completely managed by Mr. Musk. (Tesla is a publicly owned electrical automotive firm.) To date, whereas the White Home has been vocal, the Pentagon has remained silent.
“It might be good to have alternate options, and america authorities has tried to develop a few of them,” Walter Isaacson, Musk’s biographer, stated in an interview on Sunday. “However no different firm, together with United Launch Alliance, a Boeing and Lockheed Martin venture, has been capable of make reusable rockets, ship astronauts into orbit, or ship a few of these heavy satellites into excessive Earth orbit,” he stated.
