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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reportedly ordered employees to find tens of millions of dollars for a deal with Starlink as Elon Musk’s SpaceX takes a role at the air safety agency.
Rolling Stone, citing a source with knowledge of the agency and two people briefed on the situation, reports that the directives were communicated mostly verbally. That’s unusual for such internal directives, according to Rolling Stone, whose source said it appears that “someone does not want a paper trail.”
The report comes after the FAA brought on engineers from SpaceX, which owns Starlink, as senior advisers following the layoffs of hundreds of probationary employees. “SpaceX engineers will help make air travel safer,” Musk said last month.
Musk is also publicly leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has focused on downsizing the federal government and recently began visiting the FAA, which regulates SpaceX. Musk repeatedly bashed the agency last year because it was, in his opinion, too slow to approve the company’s rocket launches.
The FAA has approved SpaceX’s eighth Starship test, although an investigation into its previous test is still ongoing. The agency said it had determined SpaceX met all requirements necessary for the test flight.
Musk used his platform on X, which he owns, to criticize Verizon (VZ+1.35%), which has a $2.4 billion federal contract developing a new communications system for the FAA. However, the air system that he claimed is “breaking down very rapidly” with “single digit months to catastrophic failure” was built by L3Harris (LHX+0.54%). Musk later corrected his statement.
As he attacked the aging system, Musk promoted Starlink as an alternative. Some 4,000 Starlink terminals were sent to the FAA last month to hasten an upgrade at the FAA, Bloomberg News reported. The Washington Post also reported that the FAA was “close” to canceling the Verizon deal.
However, Verizon executive Joe Russo has said its network — which he said will be operational “shortly” — could work with Starlink.
“All I know is if they are testing ... I think that can be complementary to what we’re trying to build to really run the FAA infrastructure,” he said on Feb. 25 at a conference.
Critics of Musk in Congress have called out SpaceX’s work with the FAA, accusing the collaboration of being a conflict of interest.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said the deal “reeks of corrupt, self-serving abuse of taxpayer dollars,” while Reps. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and James Clyburn of South Carolina have named it a “glaring conflict of interest.” A group of five senators, including Blumenthal, recently wrote a letter expressing “deep concerns” over Musk’s involvement with the agency.