US military gives Elon Musk’s SpaceX access to sensitive tracking data

The SpaceX facility in Hawthorne, California, about 15 miles south-west of downtown Los Angeles. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/ View image in fullscreen The SpaceX facility in Hawthorne, California, about 15 miles south-west of downtown Los Angeles. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/ US military gives Elon Musk’s SpaceX access to sensitive tracking data This gives the company an advantage in tracking objects in orbit, raising national security concerns and fears of greater control over the space industry The US military has given Elon Musk’s SpaceX access to restricted space tracking data, raising a new round of questions about whether the Trump administration is attempting to hand over traffic control in Earth’s orbit to a controversial donor. The access also raises new national security questions, industry observers say. The move comes after Musk’s Doge in 2025 fired many of the federal government’s nascent space traffic control program’s staff, and the administration has twice attempted to financially gut the department, called the Traffic Coordination System for Space (Traccs). The moves were widely viewed in the industry as an attempt . The defense department has now granted SpaceX access to its most precise data on potential collisions among satellites and other space objects, which will give Musk’s companies an advantage over competition that offers a similar service. SpaceX and the Space Force signed the new contract. SpaceX and Space Force did not respond to requests for comment from the Guardian, but in a statement to Breaking Defense acknowledged the move. “The Space Force is engaging with several companies to exchange commercial data sources for access to sections of the controlled, unclassified information, high accuracy catalogue, where it provides benefit to the US government,” a spokesperson told the outlet. SpaceX has been expanding its power over launch and other space services, while growing closer links with the US government. Multiple industry observers have said since the Trump administration took over that they fear a “vendor lock” scenario in which the government is overly reliant on SpaceX because it has such immense influence and is so technologically advanced. The first Trump administration established Traccs to take over commercial space traffic control from the defense department. But Traccs has never been fully funded or staffed, and has struggled to take root. The latest move a crossroads for Traccs as the administration, Congress, and industry debate what to do next. The administration in fiscal year 2026 tried to largely defund the $65m program during the budgetary process, but Congress re-inserted the funding.