Elon Musk has inside track to take over contract to fix air traffic communications system

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Concerns increase over Elon Musk and government contracts, especially with the FAA.

A satellite company owned by Elon Musk has the inside track to potentially take over a large federal contract to modernize the nation’s air traffic communications system.

Equipment from Musk’s Starlink has been installed in Federal Aviation Administration facilities as a prelude to a takeover of a $2 billion contract held by Verizon, according to government employees, contractors and people familiar with the work.

Musk said that the network used by air traffic controllers is aging and requires drastic and quick action to modernize it.

“The Verizon system is not working and so is putting air travelers at serious risk,” Musk on Monday posted on X, the social media site he has owned since 2022.

The emergence of Starlink as a potential replacement for the Verizon-led effort underscores the extraordinary conflicts of interest inherent in Musk’s position as both a senior White House adviser to President Donald Trump and a business mogul in charge of a sprawling array of companies. It is not clear what role Musk might be playing in helping Starlink parent company SpaceX win such business.

“There’s very limited transparency,” said Jessica Tillipman, a contracting law expert at George Washington University. Referring to Musk, she said: “Without that transparency, we have no idea how much non-public information he has access to or what role he’s playing in what contracts are being awarded.”

Former FAA officials also told The Associated Press that they were alarmed at the prospect of Starlink being used as a critical part of the nation’s aviation system without adequate testing, review and debate about its benefits and drawbacks.

SpaceX is angling to use its constellation of satellites to replace an aging ground-based communications system that facilitates the FAA’s text and voice communication, the sources said. The Verizon contract, awarded in 2023, was to update part of that system to a more modern standard relying on fiber optic cables.

Contracting records show that nearly $200 million in work has already been done on Verizon’s 15-year modernization effort to update the FAA’s communications system. A Verizon representative said the company is unaware that the contract is being amended or terminated.

The FAA announced on X on Monday that the agency is testing a Starlink terminal at its facility in Atlantic City and two terminals at “non-safety critical sites” in Alaska. Terminals are ground-based receivers that connect devices or computers to orbiting satellites.

Another FAA contractor, L3 Harris, confirmed it was responsible for acquiring and testing Starlink terminals for incorporation into the FAA’s telecommunications infrastructure network. An L3 Harris spokesperson said the company has been working with SpaceX on the initiative for many months.

Bloomberg News reported earlier about the FAA installing Starlink terminals at its facilities.

Details about SpaceX employees deployed to work on the project are unclear, but three of its software developers appeared on a Trump administration list of government workers given “ethics waivers” to do work that could benefit Musk’s company.

Government ethics laws require that people who could profit from government work either recuse themselves from specific projects or first sell their financial holdings or sever ties with the company that could benefit. Waivers can be granted by the heads of government departments or other officials, but only in limited circumstances.

Ted Malaska, a senior director of application software at SpaceX, got a waiver along with two software engineers, Brady Glantz and Thomas Kiernan, according to the waiver list and LinkedIn profiles. The AP could not determine if the three are still working for SpaceX or the precise nature of work for the federal government.

Malaska posted on social media on Thursday that he had been meeting at FAA headquarters with officials responsible for implementation of the telecommunications modernization.

The FAA contract is not Musk’s only conflict. His acolytes have also taken over many of the operations at the General Services Administration, which controls real estate and contracting for numerous government agencies. GSA currently offers other agencies the ability to launch payloads through an existing SpaceX contract —- putting the agency in a position to direct business toward Musk. The Department of Transportation regulates aspects of SpaceX and his electric car company Tesla. NASA and the Department of Defense are major customers of SpaceX. His brain-computer interface company Neuralink has regulatory issues in front of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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25 comments

Michael K
February 25, 2025 at 6:03 pm

Gee, what a coincidence. Amazing what buying a corrupt president can do for a billionaire.
- Peachy
  February 25, 2025 at 6:13 pm
  
  How did Hunter get on the board at Burisma? He doesn’t speak or write a lick of the local language.
  - Joe
    February 27, 2025 at 10:33 am
    
    Hunter never had any effect on your life or the US government’s operations, at all. Get over it, you foxbrained puppet.
  - TJC
    February 28, 2025 at 10:55 am
    
    Peachy, whatabout whatabout whatabout whatabout.
  - Martha Barton
    February 28, 2025 at 4:57 pm
    
    Start today now online and have your first payment at the end of the week..
    simple it was >>> click My Profile
Michael K
February 25, 2025 at 6:28 pm

Poor MAGAs didn’t understand that DOGE was created to create fraud, corruption, and waste by Musk, for Musk. Fooled once again and lied to forever more!
- Peachy
  February 25, 2025 at 7:42 pm
  
  You didn’t answer the question. Have you sold your Tesla yet? 🤣
  - Skeptic
    February 25, 2025 at 8:29 pm
    
    Never had one. Didn’t fall for the welfare doofus’ schtick.
  - Joe
    February 27, 2025 at 10:40 am
    
    Well we all know you sold your soul, Peachy, to MAGA. Heil!
Skeptic
February 25, 2025 at 7:49 pm

What is meant by “fix”? My dog is fixed and will never have a puppy. Is that what we will pay Musk to do to air traffic control?
- Peachy
  February 25, 2025 at 8:05 pm
  
  Your dog can’t fly either unless he is one of those phony service animals that you libs tote around the airport too cheap to fly fifi in the cargo hold.
  - Skeptic
    February 25, 2025 at 8:25 pm
    
    My dog can’t fly and doesn’t go on planes — we are not entitled MAGAs. On the bright side, shares of Tesla and bitcoin are now bargains, unlike gasoline and eggs. Hope none of your friends got DOGEd — I like how Musk is saving us all money by shifting wages from productive federal work (like that performed by aides to Marjorie Taylor Green) to claims at state unemployment offices.
    - Peachy
      February 25, 2025 at 8:38 pm
      
      So everyone that fly’s is an entitled MAGA? Hilarious. Have you been to an airport lately?
PeterH
February 25, 2025 at 8:27 pm

Musk Twitter Crashes!
Musk Rockets Crash!

Money talks!

🤡🤡🤡
- Skeptic
  February 25, 2025 at 8:31 pm
  
  Don’t forget Musk’s Tesla crash (as does Tesla’s share price and market share). Oops.
  - Michael K
    February 25, 2025 at 9:43 pm
    
    Tesla down 45% in Europe.
    
    Now he’s trying to stop investigation of the Tesla self drive that kills people. Money buys you everything in this corrupt regime.
    - Peachy
      February 25, 2025 at 9:48 pm
      
      The only thing I have seen crash the last couple of days is Joy Reid. What will that racist, hateful beotch do now? 😜
      - TJC
        February 28, 2025 at 11:01 am
        
        You have a real problem with Black women. Too bad Oprah’s show isn’t on anymore, you could’ve gone on there to talk with Phil McGraw about it.
I. N. Flamm
February 25, 2025 at 9:33 pm

“An L3 Harris spokesperson said the company has been working with SpaceX on the initiative for many months.”
So the work was being done long before Musk arrived in Washington. It is, in other words, a typical Always Proggy nonstory written specifically to inflame the short of attention span and the long on losing, a la the above. Of course FLA POL will copy it. It’s what it does.
Michael K
February 25, 2025 at 9:46 pm

Cuts for thee but not for me. Republicans are turning against Musk as the scam sinks in. Well some of them.

You’ve been played MAGA hats.
- Peachy
  February 25, 2025 at 10:01 pm
  
  The American voters got played by the last administration. Secure Borders? Inflation? Wars on multiple fronts? No wonder Trump won so handily.
  - Mark
    February 27, 2025 at 3:59 am
    
    More Faux Noiz drivel. Inflation was down to 2.7% the last quarter. Trump has it going back up. Secure borders? Multiple wars? We weren’t trying to start one with our northern neighbor before Cheeto Benito came back, you silly trumpanzee.
Harmony
February 26, 2025 at 10:31 am

God is always going to prevail, His words can not be twisted or reversed . Love your neighbor as yourself!
Victoria Olson
February 26, 2025 at 4:26 pm

Fact air traffic control Verizon system worked perfectly until Musk & his hackers got into the system & fired people. LIES & more Lies, the American people are not naive and believe Musk & trumps BS it was all about Must getting a new contract. Since the take over 6 major air accidents, I don’t believe in coincidences only truth
KathrynA
February 28, 2025 at 9:29 am

So they’re breaking their current contract without merit; so the self-acting president of the United States, will get the billion dollar contract as he controls every department even the one he is getting money from. Does anyone see any conflict(s) of interest here? So horribly disgusting while Republican legislatures sit on their hands and do nothing about what Musk is doing to our country!