WASHINGTON ¨C The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is expanding its search for partners to build the Golden Dome missile defense system, courting Amazon¡¯s Project Kuiper and big defense contractors as tensions with billionaire Elon Musk threaten SpaceX¡¯s dominance in the program, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
The shift marks a strategic pivot away from reliance on Musk¡¯s SpaceX, whose Starlink and Starshield satellite networks have become central to U.S. military communications. It comes amid a deteriorating relationship between Trump and Musk, which culminated in a public falling-out on June 5.
Even before the spat, officials at the Pentagon and White House had begun exploring alternatives to SpaceX, wary of overreliance on a single partner for huge portions of the ambitious, $175 billion space-based defense shield, two of the sources said.
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