The US Department of Defense has granted SpaceX access to some of its most precise data on tracking objects in orbit, including potential collisions between satellites and space debris. The contract, signed with the Space Force, gives Elon Musk's company an advantage over competitors offering similar services and reopens the debate over space traffic control and national security.
The starting point is a dataset called the High Accuracy Catalog, the high-precision catalogue of orbital objects that US Space Command maintains in a secret version. For the first time, the Space Force has granted a commercial company "enhanced" access to this version. The material includes Vector Covariance Messages, data gathered by ground-based radars, telescopes and military sensors that track satellites and other objects in low orbit down to about 10 centimetres in size. The military mostly uses these tools to monitor other countries' satellites, but it also uses them to avoid collisions with commercial spacecraft.
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This function sits at the heart of the controversy. Civilian space traffic was supposed to pass to Traccs, the coordination system the Trump administration created in its first term to take the job away from the Defense Department. But Traccs was never fully funded or staffed, and in 2025 Musk's DOGE fired many of the programme's employees. In fiscal year 2026 the administration tried to gut its $65 million budget, but Congress restored the funding; for 2027 the proposed near-total cut was again rejected by the House.
SpaceX's advantage comes from the fact that Starlink runs its own tracking system, called Stargaze, made up of thousands of cameras and radars mounted on its satellites. Stargaze sees objects about half a metre in size and is less accurate than the military system. A SpaceX employee described the military radar data as "an extremely valuable tool" to supplement it. In return, the government receives access to Stargaze's cameras and sensors.
Observers say the Vector Covariance Messages are designated controlled unclassified information because they could reveal the limits of defence capabilities and help reverse-engineer the sensors used to watch other nations' satellites. For this reason the access also raises national security questions.
The US commercial space market is expected to grow to nearly $2 trillion over the next decade. For Cole Donovan, a former Traccs employee now with the non-profit Stand Up for Science, the access to military data is another step toward Musk's monopoly over commercial space activity. Donovan compares it to a trucking company controlling all the traffic lights. Another observer, a former NOAA official who spoke on condition of anonymity, says SpaceX has been remarkably responsive to space safety concerns and blames the government for failing to establish a coherent governance framework.
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Politically, Craig Holman of Public Citizen sees the episode as another example of a donor rewarded with federal business opportunities. Starlink, SpaceX's satellite network, currently operates about 11,000 satellites in orbit and could reach 20,000 in the coming years.
Impact on the Italian market
None of the sources indicate direct effects on the Italian market.
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