Updated 8 p.m. Eastern with SpaceX comment.
WASHINGTON — NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said he is concerned about reports that Elon Musk, chief executive of SpaceX, has had discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Nelson’s comments, made at Semafor’s World Economy Summit Oct. 25, represent his strongest public criticism to date of the owner of the company that NASA relies upon for transporting crews to the International Space Station and for launching key missions.
In an on-stage interview at the summit, Nelson was asked about a Wall Street Journal article that stated that Musk has had a regular series of conversations with Putin over the last two years, starting after Putin embarked on a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The article said it confirmed those discussions with current and former American, European and Russian officials.
According to the article, the discussions between Musk and Putin included a request by Putin that SpaceX not activate its Starlink service over Taiwan, as Russia sought to win support from China. SpaceX does not provide Starlink service in Taiwan, but it is unclear if that request was a factor.
SpaceX, in a post on social media Oct. 25, called the article “incredibly misleading.” It noted that Taiwan has not given SpaceX a license to operate Starlink in the country and has not lifted foreign ownership limits there. “SpaceX has not accepted such a condition for any market in which it operates. This has nothing to do with Russia or China,” the company stated.
“I don’t know that that story is true,” Nelson said at the conference. “I think it should be investigated. If the story is true that 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 has avoided directly criticizing Musk even after the billionaire increasingly disparaged the Biden administration and, in July, formally endorsed Donald Trump for president. Musk is now actively campaigning for Trump, holding a series of town halls in Pennsylvania, one of the key swing states in the presidential election.
Nelson has frequently noted that he does not deal directly with Musk about SpaceX but instead with Gwynne Shotwell, the president and chief operating officer of the company. Shotwell runs SpaceX on a day-to-day basis, but Musk is the chief executive and largest shareholder and drives the overall vision of the company.
“The good news is that Elon leaves the running of SpaceX to Gwynne Shotwell, and she is fantastic,” Nelson said at a July 30 Politico event. “And the proof is in the pudding. Look at the success of the Falcon 9.”
He did mention at that event that he does speak with Musk on occasion along with Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of Blue Origin. “They are both very agreeable. Both of them understand the importance of what we’re doing, and I’m very confident in both of those companies.”
At the Semafor event, Nelson also prefaced his remarks by noting the role Shotwell plays at SpaceX. “My dealings, NASA’s dealings, with SpaceX are primarily with Gwynne Shotwell. She is the president,” he said. “Elon Musk leaves it to her to run SpaceX, and they have been phenomenally successful.” He then discussed his concerns about the reports of Musk-Putin conversations.