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Elon Musk’s SpaceX looks set to win a $2 billion contract to develop satellites for use in tracking missiles and aircraft as part of President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome defense project, according to a report.
The planned “air moving target indicator” system in question could ultimately feature as many as 600 satellites once it is fully operational, The Wall Street Journal reports. Musk’s company has also been linked to two more satellite ventures, which are concerned with relaying sensitive communications and tracing vehicles, respectively.
Handing the contracts to SpaceX would provide a strong indication that the rift between the two billionaires, which exploded so publicly in early July, has been at least partially healed, but would do little to reassure defense sector critics who have warned the Pentagon against relying too heavily on any one contractor for national security projects.
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President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth unveil their Golden Dome missile defense project in the Oval Office on May 20 (Getty)
Golden Dome, inspired by Israel’s “Iron Dome,” was announced by Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth at the White House in May and will amount to a complex system of satellites and weaponry capable of destroying incoming missiles before they hit American targets.
The president promised it would be “fully operational” before he leaves office in January 2029, capable of intercepting rockets, “even if they are launched from space,” with an overall price tag of $175 billion.
However, the independent Congressional Budget Office warned that it could cost as much as $524 billion and take 20 years to build, with Musk’s then-rumored involvement prompting Democrats to express concerns about a conflict of interest this spring.
Funding for the satellite system was set aside in Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” passed by Congress and signed into law in July, but the legislation did not name a specific contractor.
Asked about the reported SpaceX deal, a Pentagon official told The Independent: “As a matter of policy, we do not provide details relating to specifics of architectural discussion or pre-decisional matters. Recognizing adversaries’ intent to exploit Golden Dome’s breakthroughs, we are rigorously protecting its strategic advantages from external access.”
The Independent has also reached out to the White House and SpaceX.
Although defense officials have yet to announce major contract awards for Golden Dome formally, more details are expected over the coming weeks. Anduril Industries, Palantir Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and L3Harris have all been linked to the bidding process.
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Elon Musk looks set to win the lucrative satellite contract in spite of his spectacular falling out with Trump this summer (Getty)
Palantir and Lockheed were, incidentally, named among the donors to Trump’s new White House ballroom earlier this month.
For his part, Musk has largely retreated from the political fray after his six month “side quest” in Washington ended in acrimony and disagreement over the OBBB, which saw him and Trump exchange ferocious personal insults in public via their rival social media platforms X and Truth Social.
The president threatened to have the South African-born tycoon deported and his $48 billion in government contracts placed under review during the feud. At the same time, Musk alleged that the actual reason for Trump not releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files was that he was named in them and threatened to decommission a spacecraft used to ferry NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.
Before that, Musk had donated $288 million to Trump’s 2024 election campaign and founded DOGE, the agency tasked with reducing waste expenditure and streamlining the federal government.
The two were briefly reunited and shook hands at a memorial for the conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Arizona in September, and the president said earlier this week that he had “always liked Elon” and dismissed their spat as “very stupid,” hinting at a desire for friendlier relations.
