Summary
The FAA is reportedly set to cancel a $2.4 billion contract with Verizon to modernize air traffic control communications and instead award it to Elon Musk’s Starlink.
Musk has publicly criticized Verizon’s system as failing, though without evidence. SpaceX employees have been embedded within the FAA, and some now have agency email addresses.
The move raises concerns about favoritism and conflicts of interest, especially as Musk’s companies have received $38 billion in government funding.
The contract transfer has not followed standard procedures, prompting resistance from senior FAA officials.
I’m old enough to say it was exactly like this back in 2005. That was a couple years after the Bush administration told blatant lies to start the Iraq War, ignoring the largest protests in the world up to the time. There was open corruption as they gave out massive no-bid contracts to Republican cronies like KBR. There was rank incompetence like the FEMA response to hurricane Katrina, led by a guy whose sole qualifications were running a horse breeding association (and raising a bunch of money for Republicans).
Bush threw no bid contracts for new work at Halliburton, and it was a sketchy scandal that congress wasn’t willing to prosecute, because republicans. Musk is outright stealing a contract from another vendor, while slandering them in the media.