Because those orgs are valuable / important? Lots of companies qualify as that... the entire telecommunications industry would qualify for many of the same reasons.
This whole article talks about the spat more than anything making me think that's the real reason ...
The strange thing is this call happens now, during a Trump administration that has called to privatize as much as possible.
Moving on from there, the entire article hinges around Steve Bannon's idea (an ardent far right extremist) hijacking the "Defense Production Act to nationalize SpaceX. Of course it's blindingly obvious that this is a grossly far-reaching reinterpretation of what the defense production Act was meant for. Even if crewed spaceflight squabbles put the entire nation in danger in the interim period before Boeing Starliner is back in action, NASA does still have exchange agreements with Roscosmos in place.
Taking ideas from far right extremists to repurpose laws for political aims (and considering the source, this is clearly originating from the anti oligarchy angle rather than true concern with a National Security Emergency) is not a reasonable solution, nor is it acceptable in any way. Bannon's idea literally sits alongside twisting other laws to get Trump elected for a third term.
I don't like Musk either. Perhaps an anti-trust case in a court of law would be appropriate, but stop sane-washing this. People like Bannon don't care at all about NASA concerns either. The literal reason they're out on social media stirring the pot is to *normalize" things like this.
Edit to add: plus, the big beautiful bill is deeply cutting nasa funding. I'm not seeing the current administration being that interested in space related activities.
That demand isn’t going away just because the Feds dislike Musk for a while. All the same stuff has to go in all the same orbits, and ultimately SX is the only company that can do it at a reasonable cost.
They can set the value at something they feel will barely stand up under judicial review.
Just saying...
Stop assuming the rich and powerful are also smart and competent. Those are not related properties.
It would suck having the main private space company be essentially destroyed, but that destruction is essentially similar to what happened when the Tesla became the Swasticar - social media delusion spirals have consequences. Also given the absolutely braindamaged political movements masses of people are falling for, it's not even clear we're ready to expand our civilization into space.
dotcoma•10h ago