A group of 42 Democrats has written to the Pentagon’s Inspector General demanding an investigation after it was reported that Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, could win a lucrative contract to help build President Donald Trump’s new “Golden Dome” anti-missile defense system.
Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Tammy Duckworth have responded by expressing their concerns in a letter to acting Pentagon Inspector General Steven A Stebbins, demanding transparency about the bidding process.
“Mr Musk’s formal or informal participation in any process to award a government contract raises serious conflict of interest concerns, including the possibility that SpaceX is a top contender for the Golden Dome contract because of Mr Musk’s position in the government,” they wrote.
The project, inspired by Israel’s “Iron Dome”, was announced by President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the White House on Tuesday. The president promised it would be “fully operational” before he leaves office in January 2029 and capable of intercepting rockets, “even if they are launched from space.”
The independent Congressional Budget Office has warned that the project could cost as much as $524bn and take 20 years to build. Trump dismissed that estimate, putting the price tag closer to $175bn and insisting it could be completed in just three years, beginning with a $25bn grant to kickstart the development. That effort will be steered by Space Force General Michael Guetlein and “the brightest minds” in Silicon Valley, he said without naming the former DOGE leader.
According to CNN, the billionaire, who donated $288m to the Republican election campaign last year, has lobbied Hegseth for a role in the project. SpaceX is reportedly pitching to win the contract to shape the Dome’s “custody layer,” a constellation of satellites that would detect missiles, track their trajectory, and determine if they are heading towards the U.S..
Sources told Reuters that Musk’s company has estimated that the preliminary engineering and design work for the custody layer would cost between $6bn and $10bn.
The Pentagon has warned for years that the newest missiles developed by China and Russia are so advanced that updated countermeasures are necessary.
Golden Dome’s added satellites and interceptors – where the bulk of the program’s cost lies – would be focused on stopping those advanced missiles early on or in the middle of their flight.
The space-based weapons envisioned for Golden Dome “represent new and emerging requirements for missions that have never before been accomplished by military space organizations,” General Chance Saltzman, head of the U.S. Space Force, told lawmakers at a hearing Tuesday.
China and Russia have put offensive weapons in space, such as satellites with the ability to disable critical American satellites, which can leave the U.S. vulnerable to attack.
Last year, the U.S. said Russia was developing a space-based nuclear weapon that could loiter in space for long durations, then release a burst that would take out satellites around it.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he had not yet spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the new program but would do so “at the right time.”
In a joint statement earlier this month, China and Russia called the Golden Dome “deeply destabilizing in nature,” warning that it would turn “outer space into an environment for placing weapons and an arena for armed confrontation.”
No money has been set aside for the project yet, and overall, it is “still in the conceptual stage,” newly confirmed Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told senators on Tuesday.
The U.S. already has many missile defense capabilities, such as the Patriot missile batteries it provided to Ukraine to defend against incoming missiles and an array of satellites in orbit to detect missile launches. Some of those existing systems will be incorporated into Golden Dome.
In an executive order signed on January 27, during the first week of his presidency, Trump directed the Pentagon to pursue space-based interceptors.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
