Why Musk doesn’t have access to SpaceX’s biggest government secrets
The payloads SpaceX launches into the heavens for the U.S. military and spy agencies are usually treated as a government secret, shared only with select employees at the rocket company who hold special security clearances. As SpaceX deepened its ties with the national-security agencies in recent years, the company’s lawyers advised senior executives not to seek a higher security clearance for Musk that would give him access to details about sensitive programs SpaceX is involved in, according to people familiar with the matter. Musk’s current top-secret clearance gives him access to some national-security secrets, but he lacks special authorizations that the government requires of most SpaceX employees who work on classified programs, according to the people familiar with the matter. Musk’s top-secret clearance, without those authorizations, doesn’t entitle him to access certain information about SpaceX’s spy satellite program, called Starshield, which offers satellite hardware and services to national-security agencies, the people said. SpaceX was prepared to answer questions from government officials about Musk’s drug use after the Journal reported on it, but the Pentagon didn’t ask, and SpaceX executives decided the company didn’t need to self-report to the government based solely on news accounts, said the people familiar with his clearance.
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