SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space technology company, is a top contender to build key parts of President Donald Trump’s “Golden Dome” project, Reuters reported Thursday. Trump first announced the creation of a Golden Dome, a satellite-based version of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense shield, in a January executive order.
SpaceX would partner with two major Silicon Valley contractors, Peter Thiel’s data analytics company Palantir and Palmer Luckey’s drone company Anduril, to create the system.
In the executive order announcing the Golden Dome program, the White House called missiles and aerial attacks “the most catastrophic threat facing the United States.”
Musk, Thiel, and Luckey all supported Trump during the 2024 election. Musk spent $290 million to help elect Trump and Republicans before being tapped to run the president’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a position he has used to exericse an unprecedented amount of influencer over the federal government and how it spends taxpayer money. While Thiel did not spend on the 2024 race, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale donated $1 million to Musk’s Super PAC through his company Lonsdale Enterprises, and Thiel hosted a Trump party in January. Luckey donated $200,000 to the Trump 47 Committee,.
The nature of the talks to create the Golden Dome program are “a departure from the usual acquisition process,” a source told Reuters. “There’s an attitude that the national security and defense community has to be sensitive and deferential to Elon Musk because of his role in the government.”
The companies’ plan, which they shared with officials in the Trump administration and at the Pentagon, would reportedly be to launch hundreds of satellites to track and sense missiles. They would also launch a second fleet of 200 armed satellites that would attack missiles with their own missiles or lasers. SpaceX has estimated that early stages of the project would cost from $6 billion to $10 billion, according to sources.
SpaceX and Musk declined to comment to Reuters on whether Musk is involved in the talks.
As Rolling Stone previously reported, staffers on Musk’s DOGE team have been asking very specific questions about the Golden Dome project, raising eyebrows among Pentagon staffers.
“Why do these fucking kids know this?” is how one source described their bewilderment at the time.
“It remains to be seen whether SpaceX and these tech companies will be able to pull any of this off,” one of the sources told Reuters. “They’ve never had to deliver on an entire system that the nation will need to rely on for its defense.”
SpaceX has pitched this project as a “subscription service,” meaning that it, and not the U.S. government, would own the Golden Dome technology, and the government would pay for access. This approach would supposedly allow the Pentagon to create the system faster by avoiding burdensome protocols.
The suggestion has raised concern among some Pentagon officials. Sources told Reuters U.S. Space Force General Michael Guetlein has been involved in discussions about whether SpaceX should own the technology.
Earlier this month, Gen. Chance Saltzman, head of the U.S. Space Force, stressed that the Golden Dome would consist of multiple parts. “It’s not a system. There’s not going to be a ‘Golden Dome delivered,’” he said at a news conference. “It’s a system of systems that has to work together. And so there won’t be a single-contract vehicle. There will be multiple programs that are brought to bear to solve that mission against the threats.”
He said the project is in its early stages. “We’re doing the planning. We’re looking at what resources might be available, which programs are currently developed that might contribute to it. And that is all still way pre-decisional.”
