THE REALITY OF SPACEX IN THE US SPACE POLICY FROM AN ASTROPOLITICAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

In recent years, several nations, including China, India, Japan, and developing countries like Iran, have made significant advancements in their space research sectors. Only Russia and the United States consider themselves the foremost space powers, allocating billions annually to sustain their equipment and information dominance. However, in less than ten years, space and its mineral and energy resources seem to be the focus of massive competitions between great powers, creating new intersections between corporations and governments, and, of course, between corporations and governments. A new breed of astropolitical competitions will result from this. Consequently, geopolitical certainty on Earth and the strategic equations of the space realm can be reinterpreted. On the other hand, the United States dedicates a significant portion of its military and research budget to the United States Space Research Organization, or NASA, for this astropolitical conflict. NASA, the world’s largest space research agency, with years of experience of outer cosmos exploration and high-quality personnel, albeit 21^st century introduced private actors that nowadays actively participate in astropolitics. Therefore, this study assesses the emerging geopolitical competition that lies behind the growing international interest in space by analyzing the role of SpaceX in astropolitics, which represents a new dimension of private enterprise activity.