SpaceX secures over $8 billion in Golden Dome contracts, wins key FCC waivers

Lawmakers cite monopoly concerns over SpaceX’s launch and satellite programs

SpaceX has secured billions of dollars in U.S. government contracts and key FCC waivers during the Trump administration. More than $8 billion of the contract value is tied to the Golden Dome program, a satellite-based effort designed to track enemy missiles and aircraft. Earlier this year, the Space Force awarded SpaceX a contract worth roughly $4.2 billion to develop hundreds of tracking satellites.

Months earlier, the service selected SpaceX to deliver what officials described as the “backbone” of a separate military data-transmission network, a deal valued at nearly $2.3 billion. In total, SpaceX is in line for more than $8 billion in Golden Dome-related work covering tracking satellites, military data satellites and rocket launches. The Journal reported that amount represents at least a third of the program’s budgeted total so far.

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell referenced the company’s national-security satellite wins during the company’s August investor call, telling analysts she was “very bullish on government” deals.

Some members of Congress raised concerns about the Pentagon’s reliance on SpaceX for national-security space work, according to people familiar with the discussions. Lawmakers pushed the Space Force to broaden the supplier pool, and the service opened a window for additional proposals.

The report said extremely specific criteria and a challenging timeline kept other potential bidders out of the mix, and some companies ultimately avoided bidding at all. Three other companies were later hired for portions of the tracking-satellite program, sharing contracts worth up to $615 million. In August, the Space Force announced that five more companies would join a separate military data-transmission program, splitting $60 million to demonstrate their technology.

A Space Force spokeswoman said program requirements were “contractor-agnostic” and that the acquisition strategy was designed to foster open competition and meet military needs. “As with any contract awarded to industry, no funding was allocated for any company until after the full and open competitions concluded,” the Space Force said in a statement.

Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, referenced the company’s “longstanding concern about SpaceX’s near monopoly position in launch and proliferated satellite constellations” at a recent hearing.

Todd Harrison, a defense analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank, said the contract awards had drawn the most public attention, but the regulatory victories carried greater systemic consequence. “There’s been a lot of focus on their contract wins,” Harrison told the Journal. “In the bigger scheme, the regulatory wins have more systemic, long-term implications for their business model.” SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment.

The regulatory track has compounded SpaceX’s position. In May, the Federal Communications Commission approved SpaceX’s plan to purchase spectrum rights to connect mobile phones with satellites and waived a requirement that the owner of those wireless resources maintain ground infrastructure to ensure certain cellular service levels around the country. The FCC said in an order that keeping the rule would burden SpaceX and that the company’s network would promote “U.S. leadership in connectivity.”

The commission granted SpaceX a separate waiver in January aimed at ensuring that satellites stationed closer to Earth would not interfere with those operating much farther away. The FCC is also reviewing the company’s proposal to deploy up to one million artificial-intelligence satellites, a plan central to SpaceX’s ambition to build out AI operations in orbit.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr rebuked Amazon after the company asked the commission to reject the satellite proposal, describing it as vague and speculative. Carr wrote on X that Amazon should focus on its own FCC-established satellite milestones “rather than spending their time and resources filing petitions against companies that are putting thousands of satellites in orbit.” An Amazon spokesman declined to comment. An FCC spokesman said the space industry is “now booming in ways that will benefit consumers.”

Federal transportation officials in July proposed rolling back environmental oversight covering space-related activities, exempting launches and spaceport development from laws that require federal agencies to assess impacts and alternatives. A Transportation Department spokesman said the effort would help all innovators in the U.S. space sector in what the spokesman described as the country’s race against China in orbit. SpaceX has previously chafed at federally mandated environmental reviews related to its Starship rockets.

Musk campaigned with Trump in the last election, held an advisory role in the White House and plans to spend at least $100 million to boost Republican candidates during the coming midterm elections, the Journal reported. SpaceX also contributes to campaigns and creates thousands of jobs around the country. In a filing ahead of its IPO, the company said its business could be damaged by changes in Congress or the presidency.