Pentagon Seeks Direct Control Over Elon’s Big Rocket for Select Missions

SpaceX’s Starship is poised to be the most coveted launch vehicle in the world once it’s finally up and running, but the Pentagon is hoping to take things a step further by grabbing full control of the megarocket for critically important missions.

The U.S. Department of Defense is engaging with SpaceX to explore the possibility of the government taking control of the company’s Starship megarocket for “​​sensitive and potentially dangerous missions,” as first reported by Aviation Weekly. In this proposed scenario, the Pentagon would temporarily acquire a Starship, making it both government property and a government-operated asset. This differs from simply contracting SpaceX for launch services, granting the Pentagon complete control and responsibility for particular missions.

Gary Henry, a senior advisor at SpaceX, disclosed the news on Tuesday while speaking to an audience at the Space Mobility Conference in Orlando, Florida. SpaceX has entered into discussions focusing on particular missions, “where it’s a very specific and sometimes elevated risk or maybe a dangerous use case for the DoD where they’re asking themselves: Do we need to own it as a particular asset…SpaceX, can you accommodate that?” said Henry, as quoted by Aviation Weekly. SpaceX is currently looking into the proposed arrangement and the kinds of options that might be available, he added.

The two-stage Starship remains a work in progress. At liftoff, Starship, standing at 397 feet (121 meters), will unleash 16.5 million pounds of thrust, thanks to all 33 Raptor engines firing together. This tremendous power will allow it to transport an impressive 150 metric tons to low Earth orbit, establishing itself as the most powerful rocket ever once it’s operational. SpaceX has performed two integrated test flights of Starship to date, with the third test scheduled for later this month.

SpaceX has already secured a contract to develop the Rocket Cargo mission for the Air Force, with the goal of completing point-to-point cargo delivery through space. The new proposal is considerably different, as it would involve the Pentagon directly assuming ownership and operational command of its procured Starships.

As Aviation Weekly points out, this proposed arrangement has precedent. The Pentagon engages with private partners for cargo deliveries, but for critical missions it relies on its own service “gray trail” aircraft. In the case of SpaceX, the military might temporarily use a Starship for a particular mission and then hand it back to SpaceX when all is said and done.

Interestingly, SpaceX’s ground crews may not be involved in these Pentagon-led launches; instead, the government would handle the operation of the fully reusable rocket. It’s these sorts of details that will have to be worked out; SpaceX, obviously, holds proprietary expertise when it comes to preparing and launching its rockets, and it’s highly likely that some company personnel will need to be involved.

With all this in mind, I have to wonder how much, if any of this, has to do with Elon Musk himself. In early January, a bombshell report from the Wall Street Journal claimed that the SpaceX CEO frequently partakes in cocaine, LSD, and psychedelic mushrooms, with multiple sources claiming that Musk’s alleged drug use is both alarming and frequent; Musk denied the claims. That the Pentagon might not want this controversial figure involved in highly classified missions would make sense.

That issue notwithstanding, the Pentagon’s interest in Starship makes sense from a strategic and tactical perspective, as it would allow the DoD to leverage the rocket’s impressive power and size to introduce groundbreaking in-space capabilities. This would open up tantalizing possibilities for the design of classified payloads, uniquely tailored to Starship’s unprecedented payload capacity in terms of size, dimension, and weight.

Related article: SpaceX’s Giant Starship Tapped to Launch Starlab’s Giant Steel Space Station

At the same time, these assets, whether spy satellites, spaceplanes, or something else entirely, could be developed, launched, and deployed without SpaceX looking on. As to whether SpaceX will buy into this plan, that’s the big question.

Want to know more about Elon Musk’s space venture? Check out our full coverage of SpaceX’s Starship megarocket and the SpaceX Starlink internet satellite megaconstellation. And for more spaceflight in your life, follow us on X and bookmark Gizmodo’s dedicated Spaceflight page.

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