NASA Administrator Bill Nelson called for an investigation into a Wall Street Journal report that says billionaire Elon Musk, who founded SpaceX and is also the CEO of Tesla, has maintained regular communication with Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2022. The subjects of the conversations included business, geopolitics, and national security issues.
At a recent conference, Nelson declared that if the claims were true, the discussions would worry both NASA and the Department of Defense. “If there have been multiple conversations between Elon Musk and the president of Russia, then I think that would be concerning, particularly for NASA, for the Department of Defense, for some of the intelligence agencies,” Nelson said.
The Pentagon has had little to say on the matter regarding Musk’s contact with foreign leaders, although several White House officials secretly informed the Wall Street Journal that they knew little about Musk’s contact with Putin. This has created much fear and anxiety as more people realize the powers that lie with Musk, especially considering the national security ties linked to SpaceX’s satellite services.
According to reports, Putin once asked Musk to curb the usage of SpaceX’s Starlink internet service over Taiwan, but a Kreml spokesperson said that Putin and Musk have had only one conversation to discuss space and future technologies.
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