Days After DOGE Lands at the Agency, the FAA Says It’s Testing Starlink Equipment in Its Systems

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is working with the Federal Aviation Administration, the very agency his DOGE organization is currently in the process of modernizing. According to multiple outlets, the FAA is currently testing the use of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network to improve its telecommunications in remote geographical areas.

The relationship between Musk’s company and the agency was originally reported by Bloomberg and announced by the FAA in a tweet posted Monday evening. The agency said that Alaska and other remote areas have “long had issues with reliable weather information” and that Musk’s satellite network would hopefully assist with improving that blindspot. “The 2024 FAA Reauthorization required the FAA to fix telecommunications connections to address those needs,” a statement, posted by the agency on Musk’s website, X, reads. “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.”

Bloomberg’s original report stated that the deal would involve the deployment of some 4,000 Starlink terminals over the course of the next 12 to 18 months. The agency has said that it is testing one terminal “at its facility in Atlantic City and two terminals at non-safety critical sites in Alaska.” CNN has reported that Starlink has an actual contract with the FAA, whereas Bloomberg’s reporting merely mentions the agency’s testing of the company’s terminals. Gizmodo reached out to the FAA for comment and more information.

Whatever its nature, the deal would appear to be fresh evidence of the raging conflicts of interest (or, put more simply, corruption) at the heart of the new Trump administration. The same billionaire oligarch that is leading a government-wide restructuring effort aimed at the bureaucracy is also using his company’s products to modernize the federal agencies that he is tasked with “disrupting.” Sounds totally kosher and above-board, right?

Last week it was reported that SpaceX engineers had been “onboarded” at the FAA, and were working on reviewing the nation’s air traffic control systems, with an eye towards potentially modernizing it. The FAA has notably had multiple run-ins with SpaceX in the past over the company’s various activities.

The FAA currently has a $2 billion contract with Verizon to upgrade its IT infrastructure, but Musk has said that the Verizon deal is “not working.” 

It should be noted that Musk’s SpaceX already enjoys a veritable monopoly on the satellite industry. Indeed, recent reporting from non-profit satellite tracker CelesTrak shows that Musk now controls “nearly two-thirds” of all active satellites that are in orbit over Earth. Were Musk’s satellite network to be integrated into federal systems, it would represent a structural integration between the billionaire’s businesses and America’s national infrastructure.

Since Trump took office, the FAA has presided over a number of plane crashes, including one in Washington D.C. in which a military helicopter fatally collided with an airliner over the Potomac River, and another in Canada in which a Delta commercial airliner from Minneapolis flipped upside down. According to data reviewed by Newsweek, the number of plane-related fatalities is up compared to last year, though the number of overall crashes is down. The Trump administration laid off about 400 FAA employees earlier this month and, in the wake of the D.C. crash, it was reported that Musk had pressured the FAA’s chief to quit only days before the fatal incident occurred.

DOGE’s activities have—so far—mostly led to mass mayhem and dysfunction throughout the government. The initiative has sought to lay off large parts of the federal workforce and even “delete” entire federal agencies. The legality of Musk’s effort has increasingly been called into question, with many legal experts maintaining that DOGE’s activities are illegal. Several federal judges have begun to block the organization’s activities, and it’s unclear whether the GOP’s federal budget—which has been influenced by DOGE’s—will get the necessary votes to head to Trump’s desk.

The Democrats have also begun to fight back. On Monday, a bill was introduced that would repeal the executive order that created DOGE, and accuses Musk of flouting the necessary laws and regulations that govern his supposed position as a “special government employee.”