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In America’s Space Race With Communist China, Elon Musk’s Rockets Are Emerging as Indispensable Weapons — If California Doesn’t Get in the Way

Coast regulators taking aim at SpaceX are endangering America’s lead over Communist China.

Mario Tama/Getty Images
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket flies above the Pacific Ocean carrying a payload of 22 Starlink internet satellites into space after launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base April 1, 2024 as seen from San Clemente, California. The launch was visible across much of Southern California. Mario Tama/Getty Images
M.J. KOCH
M.J. KOCH

As the growing tensions between America and Communist China play out not on the battlefield, but amongst the stars, Washington is finding one of its greatest assets lies in the ambitions of one man and his space company — Elon Musk. Yet America’s prowess beyond Earth’s surface could yet depend on whether state regulators in California allow SpaceX to innovate.

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M.J. KOCH
M.J. KOCH

Ms. Koch graduated in 2023 from Harvard College, where she was the editor-in-chief of the student weekly, the Harvard Independent. She reports on issues of higher education and foreign policy at The New York Sun.

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