SpaceX Tapped for Industry Group Developing Golden Dome Software

SpaceX is part of a group of companies developing the operating system underpinning President Donald Trump's Golden Dome initiative, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring the deep ties between Elon Musk's rocket-and-satellite maker and the US government.

The company is focused on integrating satellite communications for military operations, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren't authorized to speak publicly. SpaceX is working alongside eight other defense and artificial intelligence companies, including Anduril Industries Inc., Palantir Technologies Inc. and Aalyria Technologies Inc., to build software connecting missile defense capabilities, according to one of the people.

SpaceX's previously unreported participation in the consortium indicates its role in the Golden Dome project is broader than previously known and extends into software development. The Wall Street Journal earlier revealedBloomberg Terminal the names of some members of the industry group and reportedBloomberg Terminal that SpaceX would also receive a hardware-focused contract to build satellites for Golden Dome.

SpaceX didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company, which is expected to go public later this year, is already working with the US Space Force to develop a military communications network using the company's Starshield platform, a version of Starlink that offers a classified and encrypted signal. The involvement with Golden Dome signifies continuing defense work supporting SpaceX's target valuation in the initial public offering of more than $2 trillion.

The Golden Dome command-and-control technology is intended to connect military systems that are typically kept separated, and will serve as the backbone of the $185 billion defense initiative, which aims to shield the US from any foreign aerial attack.

Some details of the industry consortium were disclosed last month by General Michael Guetlein, who is heading the Golden Dome effort. After an initial six-company group was formed -- which also included Swoop Technologies and Scale AI -- the Pentagon added three large defense contractors: Lockheed Martin Corp., RTX Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp.

The software is intended to be the "glue layer" that allows the Pentagon to "pull together all these various capabilities" under the Golden Dome umbrella, Guetlein said at an industry conference. The companies meet every Thursday evening to brief Guetlein on their progress and have already conducted a live demonstration of their capabilities, he said.

According to a Pentagon official, the command-and-control consortium is expected to show that the system can "receive data from different sources, process that information, make decisions at relevant speed and take action" this year.

The software is also expected to be used for an in-orbit demonstration of space-based interceptors in 2027, said one of the people familiar with the matter.

Space-based interceptors, which are designed to destroy enemy missiles outside the Earth's atmosphere, are a key but unproven component of Golden Dome.

In November, the Space Force said it had awarded multiple contracts of less than $9 million each to unidentified companies to develop interceptor prototypes. Impulse Space, Anduril and Apex Space are among the firms selected to develop these prototypes, according to people familiar with the matter.