Elon Musk’s SpaceX, along with two partners, have emerged as frontrunners to win a major part of Donald Trump’s newly announced “Golden Dome” missile defense shield.
If the tech entrepreneur is successful in his bid to build part of the controversial project, it could mean billions more in the pocket of the world’s richest man.
The president on Tuesday unveiled a plan to spend $25 billion to begin work on the Dome, insisting it would take only three years to complete. This is in contrast to estimates by the independent Congressional Budget Office, which has estimated the project could take 20 years and cost $524 billion.
It follows an executive order from Trump on January 27, in which he described a missile attack as the “most catastrophic threat facing the United States.”
SpaceX is pitching to win the contract for part of the Golden Dome initiative called the “custody layer,” a constellation of satellites that would detect missiles, track their trajectory, and determine if they’re heading toward the U.S., two sources familiar with the bid told Reuters.
Musk’s company has estimated the preliminary engineering and design work for the custody layer of satellites would cost between $6 billion and $10 billion, the sources told the outlet.
In the last five years, SpaceX has launched hundreds of operational spy satellite, and, more recently, several prototypes. These could be retrofitted to be used for the project, the sources noted.
Reuters also reviewed an internal Pentagon memo from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued shortly before a February 28 deadline to senior Pentagon leadership asking them for initial Golden Dome proposals and calling for the “acceleration of the deployment” of constellations of satellites.
Musk’s SpaceX has also joined with two other tech companies – software maker Palantir and drone builder Anduril – for its bid on the “custody layer.”
All three companies were founded by entrepreneurs who have been major political supporters of Trump, with Musk himself having donated more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect the president.
Over the last few weeks, according to Reuters, representatives from the three companies have met with top officials in the Trump administration and the Pentagon to pitch plans for the project, which reportedly would involve launching up to 1,000 satellites to circle the globe to sense missiles and track their movement.
A separate fleet of 200 attack satellites armed with missiles or lasers would then bring enemy missiles down, sources told the outlet. The SpaceX group is not expected to be involved in the weaponization of satellites, they added.
Despite the Pentagon’s positive signals to the SpaceX group, sources told Reuters that the decision process for the building of Trump’s Golden Dome is in its very early stages. Its ultimate structure and who is selected to work on it could change dramatically in the coming months or years
Reuters contributed to this report.
