FAA confirms it's testing Starlink, maybe for tasks Elon says Verizon is doing badly

Plus: Musk's biz empire reportedly pulled in $6B-plus from Uncle Sam last year

The FAA has confirmed it's trying out three SpaceX Starlink broadband terminals in the United States.

This raises concerns about conflicts of interest given SpaceX is run by Elon Musk, who is closely intertwined with the US government, not just as President Trump's éminence grease but also as the overseer of DOGE, the controversial unit that's cutting federal staff and programs, and scrutinizing government contracts. Contracts like those held by the FAA.

One such contract would be a $2.4 billion 15-year deal Verizon won in 2023 to work on the FAA Enterprise Network Services (FENS) program, which involves providing “secure communications, information services, and networking capabilities required to support National Airspace System (NAS) operations and agency administration functions.” In short: A communications backbone for FAA systems, including air traffic control.

Musk on Tuesday claimed without evidence "the Verizon system is not working and so is putting air travelers at serious risk.” That's a government advisor criticizing a massive government contract, with said advisor's own company stepping in to potentially disrupt that deal.

The FAA, meanwhile, said on state media it has had problems getting weather information reliably to aviators in Alaska.

“That is why the FAA has been considering the use of Starlink since the prior administration to increase reliability at remote sites, including in Alaska," the regulator stated, before confirming three Starlink dishes are being tested at two of its "non-safety critical" sites in the frigid state, with another unit being assessed at its facility in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Getting internet access to remote areas like Alaska is Starlink's forte and the satellite system doesn't need the kind of infrastructure build-out needed for wired services. But Starlink isn't the only satellite provider out there and it's not clear if the agency is testing out competing technology, or is testing the service due to issues with FENS. We've asked the FAA for clarification, and Verizon for comment.

As we said, the Tesla tycoon is laying into Verizon while boosting his own company and driving the Department of Government Efficiency, aka DOGE, which seeks to overhaul the US federal government. Some might say there's a conflict of interest there, though Musk and Trump have insisted the Twitter owner will avoid any such conflicts or impropriety.

DOGE last week laid off about 400 people from the FAA, or roughly one percent of its workforce. The week before that Musk and other SpaceX staffers visited the regulator to get a first-hand look at its systems, with the new Secretary of the Department of Transportation saying that inspection was just fine.

Musk does have experience in wrangling US government contracts, loans, and electric vehicle subsidies. A report Wednesday by the Washington Post – owned by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, who also owns SpaceX rival Blue Origin – claimed that in the past year alone Tesla and SpaceX took $6.8 billion in public money and over the past 20 years Musk's companies have pulled in $38 billion from the Feds. It's possible Elon's corporations bagged more money: The Post says its numbers come from publicly available documents, and military spending is often not revealed.

The newspaper also reported two sources reckon the FAA is "close" to scrapping that $2.4 billion Verizon contract, and may well award the FENS project to Starlink. The agency said no decisions have been made.

Subsidies and such aside, Tesla, for one, has paid back at least one government loan. And the money given to, for example, SpaceX is for services rendered – rocket launches for Uncle Sam, and so forth.

Some have argued that as the world's richest man, Musk doesn’t need to steer government money to his pockets or companies. As Fox News host John Roberts put it: "If you're gonna trust anybody with rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse, wouldn't you want it to be a guy who really doesn't need your money?"

We'll see. ®