SpaceX has contracts to do all types of labor for the US authorities, from placing Toyotas on the moon to plunging the Worldwide House Station into the ocean. The corporate’s work contains secret tasks for the U.S. army, however CEO Elon Musk wouldn’t know a lot about that — he’s not allowed into these rooms at company HQ.
Entry to that form of labeled information requires safety clearance, and Musk does even have that: He’s held High Secret-level clearance since 2022. Particular tasks, nonetheless, can require further addenda on high of the generalized clearance. SpaceX’s attorneys, in keeping with a brand new report from the Wall Road Journal, have suggested towards Musk asking for these further packages — for concern that he could lose even the clearance he has as a result of his unfastened lips, frequent conferences with overseas officers, and drug use:
The SpaceX attorneys started analyzing the dangers of searching for the next safety clearance for Musk after the Journal reported in June of final yr about Musk’s use of ketamine, in keeping with one particular person accustomed to the assessment. The attorneys and executives concluded that if SpaceX sought the next safety clearance, it will threat Musk being turned down, or worse, dropping the top-secret clearance he already has.
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Musk’s present top-secret clearance provides him entry to some national-security secrets and techniques, however he lacks particular authorizations that the federal government requires of most SpaceX workers who work on labeled packages, in keeping with the folks accustomed to the matter. These workers—greater than 400—have permissions for what is named “delicate compartmented info,” the federal government’s time period for need-to-know secrets and techniques about how intelligence is collected and the place it comes from, one of many folks stated. A smaller variety of SpaceX workers have entry to secrets and techniques the federal government deems much more delicate known as particular entry packages.
Musk’s top-secret clearance, with out these authorizations, doesn’t entitle him to entry sure details about SpaceX’s spy satellite tv for pc program, known as Starshield, which gives satellite tv for pc {hardware} and companies to national-security businesses, the folks stated. He isn’t allowed to enter most SpaceX amenities the place labeled work is completed and mentioned, and he hardly ever is aware of labeled parts of cargo that his rockets blast into house, corresponding to sensors and different {hardware} hooked up to spy satellites.
Musk’s firm launches all matter of kit into house for the U.S. authorities, and Musk isn’t allowed to know what most of it’s — a limitation not shared by the CEOs of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, who the Journal states each have higher-level “delicate compartmented info” entry.
In fact, The Journal gives this might all change on a dime when Donald Trump enters the white home subsequent month, by way of the proposed Division of Authorities Effectivity, however there’s no assure that it’s going to. Musk has reportedly not precisely gotten together with the Trump camp, along with his behavior of enjoying up his personal significance apparently grating on the nerves of Trump’s group. Trump himself has even advised audiences he “can’t do away with” Musk, irrespective of how a lot he tries.
The cringily-named DOGE could be the regulatory equal of handing your youthful cousin an unplugged Ps controller so that they really feel like they’re enjoying — as a physique not created by Congress, its powers are restricted to advising the chief department on selections to make. It’s completely doable that it exists to make its members really feel vital whereas maintaining them away from something they will actually break (or annoy). In that case, further safety clearances could not include the territory.
The truth that Musk can’t know what goes to house on his personal rockets is sweet enjoyable, however one has to surprise how a lot he’d actually threat by asking for additional safety clearances. In spite of everything, NASA has a proud historical past of counting on the brains of oldsters similar to Musk.
