According to three informed sources, the Trump administration is expanding its search for partners to build the "Golden Dome" missile defense system, showing goodwill towards Amazon's Kuiper project and large defense contractors. The tense relationship between Trump and Musk threatens SpaceX's dominant position in the project. This shift marks the Trump administration's departure from reliance on Musk's SpaceX company, whose Starlink and StarShield satellite networks have become the core of US military communications. The relationship between Trump and Musk is deteriorating, ultimately leading to a public falling out on June 5th. Two sources said that even before the dispute, officials from the Pentagon and White House had already begun exploring alternative options for SpaceX, concerned about relying too heavily on a single partner to undertake most of the tasks for this $175 billion space-based defense system.
