Elon Musk at SATELLITE 2020. Photo: Via Satellite

Elon Musk will co-lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency in the Trump administration, president-elect Donald Trump announced late Tuesday. 

According to Trump’s press statement, the Department of Government Efficiency will “provide advice and guidance from outside of government,” indicating that Musk will not hold an official government position. 

This role will likely raise concerns about conflicts of interest even if Musk does not hold an official government position. Government employees are prohibited from participating in official matters where they have a financial interest. 

Musk’s company SpaceX has billions of dollars in U.S. government contracts through launch services, NASA crew transport, Starlink internet service, and the Starshield government business. 

The administration’s announcement provided few details on what the Department of Government Efficiency will look like, but Trump’s statement said that it will “pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies.” 

Musk will co-lead the department with Vivek Ramaswamy, with a timetable to conclude the work no later than July 4, 2026. 

Space industry analyst Chris Quilty told Via Satellite that as spaceflight is a heavily regulated industry, Elon and SpaceX could stand to benefit from deregulation under a Trump administration. 

Musk has been personally critical of the agencies that regulate SpaceX, both the FCC and Federal Aviation Administration. SpaceX has criticized decisions by the regulatory agencies as well, particularly the FCC revoking nearly $1 billion in funding for Starlink as part of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. SpaceX has also criticized the FAA for the pace the regulator approves licensing materials. 

But any decisions or recommendations from Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency related to the space industry or the regulatory bodies that oversee SpaceX could be heavily scrutinized, Quilty said. 

“If you’re [a satellite operator] competing with SpaceX in satellite broadband, you don’t want them to get any more preferential treatment for power limits, or things like that,” Quilty said. “You do not want Elon getting more influence where he might be able to influence technical specifications. But on the flip side — it’s a good thing for the industry when he is distracted. No human can do everything, all the time, everywhere.”

Quilty also pointed out that any potential big shakeup decisions in space policy — such as canceling the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion programs — look more complicated when Musk is advising the government and stands to benefit with the Starship rocket, which has large contracts with NASA under the Artemis program. 

“You could argue that Elon Musk becoming part of the government may be the savior for those programs because the appearance of impropriety might prevent Trump from doing the right thing,” Quilty said. “The quickest path to the Moon is going to be on Starship. But if Elon is part of the government and the strategy is to shoot the program that is Boeing and Lockheed and give money to SpaceX — just because it looks bad doesn’t mean it’s not the right thing to do.” 

SpaceX has a deep bench of contracts with the government between NASA and the military. The company is a major provider of launch services to the government for military and civil satellites. The Pentagon used Starlink in Ukraine, and the military can procure communications from SpaceX under the Proliferated Low-Earth Orbit (PLEO) satellite-based services program. 

SpaceX provides the only U.S.-based transport for NASA astronauts to and from ISS, and won a contract this year to develop a vehicle to deorbit the ISS. 

Some of the company’s contracts are classified, like a $1.8 billion contract with the National Reconnaissance Office to build hundreds of spy satellites, which Reuters reported earlier this year.