{"id":896702,"date":"2026-10-27T19:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T19:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/896702\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T19:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T19:28:10","slug":"nationalize-spacex-by-jonathan-v-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/896702\/","title":{"rendered":"Nationalize SpaceX – by Jonathan V. Last"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>(Photo illustration by Sarah Rogers\/The Bulwark | Photos: Getty)<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been making the case for nationalizing SpaceX for years, but I\u2019ve never put the arguments all in one place. That\u2019s what we\u2019re doing today. Let\u2019s stipulate that this newsletter won\u2019t have all the answers. It\u2019s a starting point for deeper discussions. But a longstanding reality is suddenly obvious to people:<\/p>\n

SpaceX is a national security vulnerability. Something must be done about it.<\/p>\n

Two things up front: First, my headline is \u201cNationalize SpaceX,\u201d but that\u2019s shorthand. I don\u2019t know that we need to \u201cnationalize\u201d the company, per se. Maybe we do! Or maybe it needs to be broken up! Or aggressively regulated!<\/p>\n

So for the purposes of discussion, please treat \u201cNationalize SpaceX\u201d as a catchall and not a specific policy proposal. We can talk about nationalization as we go; just understand that it\u2019s only one tool.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the first thing.<\/p>\n

The second thing is that we should divorce the person of Elon Musk from this conversation. Musk is a uniquely dangerous individual and the fact that he controls SpaceX increases the national security risks. But the risks would still exist no matter who controlled the company. Imagine a wise, beneficent trillionaire instead. If he controlled SpaceX outright, it would still be an unacceptable risk for America.<\/p>\n

In the first section I\u2019ll explain why SpaceX is a danger to national security. In the second I\u2019ll lay out some possible policy solutions.<\/p>\n

Are you ready? Good. Let me start by explaining why you can\u2019t buy a combat-ready fighter jet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Photo illustration by Sarah Rogers\/The Bulwark | Photos: Getty) I\u2019ve been making the case for nationalizing SpaceX for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[79,193],"class_list":["post-896702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}