Space Force Hands SpaceX Its Most Precise Space Tracking Data

By Olivia Hart

The US Space Force has granted SpaceX unprecedented access to its most precise collision-tracking data, giving Elon Musk's company military-grade information no other commercial operator holds. Cole Donovan, a former Traccs employee now with the Stand Up for Science non-profit, called it another step toward Musk asserting monopoly control over commercial space activity — a market expected to reach nearly $2tn in value over the next decade.

The contract covers the Space Command's most detailed, secure version of its High Accuracy Catalog (Hac) of on-orbit objects. It is the first time the military has given a commercial company this "enhanced" access. The data includes Vector Covariance Messages (VCMs) — tracking information from military sensors, telescopes and ground radars that follow satellites and debris as small as 10cm (about 4 inches).

Donovan's assessment is blunt.

"It's making a company the de facto source for space traffic coordination within the US," Donovan said. "It's like giving a trucking company control of all the traffic lights, which they can switch to red whenever it's their competition's turn to go."

What does the deal actually cover?

The military built its radar and telescope network primarily to monitor other countries' satellites. It also uses the data to track commercial spacecraft and prevent collisions — a responsibility the Pentagon wanted to hand off to the Traffic Coordination System for Space (Traccs), the civil traffic-control office the first Trump administration created. Instead, the data went to SpaceX.

Traccs manages thousands of satellites, debris objects and spacecraft, and helps prevent up to 50,000 near-collisions — called conjunctions — every day. That is roughly one potential close call every two seconds, around the clock.

The VCM data matters commercially because it outclasses SpaceX's own tracking system. Starlink's "Stargaze" network — thousands of cameras and radars mounted on Starlink satellites — can only detect objects down to about half a meter. A SpaceX employee, quoted by Breaking Defense at an industry conference, acknowledged the value: the military "radar data is an extremely valuable tool to supplement Stargaze."

The exchange is not one-way. The government receives access to Stargaze's cameras and sensors in return. "The more observations and data that [the military] has, the better," Donovan said.

Why does the timing raise flags?

The deal follows a pattern. Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) fired much of Traccs's staff in 2025, and the administration has twice tried to gut the program's budget. For fiscal year 2026, it attempted to largely defund the $65m program; Congress reinserted the funding. It proposed slashing the budget to nearly zero again in fiscal year 2027, and the House restored the money once more.

Industry observers read the moves as an attempt to privatize space traffic control. Several employees of commercial space companies have told the Guardian since early 2025 that support for Traccs is broad within the industry, because a civil authority would level the playing field.

SpaceX and the Space Force did not respond to requests for comment from the Guardian. In a statement to Breaking Defense, a spokesperson acknowledged the move but framed it as routine: "The Space Force is engaging with several companies to exchange commercial data sources for access to sections of the controlled, unclassified information, high accuracy catalogue, where it provides benefit to the US government."

That framing leaves questions open. The spokesperson named no other companies receiving comparable access, and the VCM data is designated "controlled unclassified information" — closely held because it could expose the limits of US defense capabilities and aid reverse engineering of the satellite sensors used to monitor foreign defense satellites.

Is this a conflict of interest?

Craig Holman, Capitol Hill lobbyist for the government accountability group Public Citizen, calls it exactly that. "Elon Musk has bought his way into the favor of President Trump and with it, unlimited riches and lucrative government contracts in the space industry," Holman said. "[His] political investment is paying off very, very handsomely – as was intended."

Not every observer blames the company. A former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official, speaking anonymously, said SpaceX has been "remarkably responsive to space safety concerns" and does not fault Starlink for filling a gap the government left open.

"My greater disappointment is with the government's failure to fulfil its responsibility to establish a coherent space governance framework that provides guidance, transparency, and a level playing field for all operators," the official said.

The stakes scale with Musk's orbital footprint. Starlink, SpaceX's broadband subsidiary, operates about 11,000 satellites today and could reach 20,000 in the coming years. Multiple industry observers have warned of a "vendor lock" scenario in which Washington grows overly reliant on SpaceX because of its influence and technical lead.

Traccs sits at a crossroads while the administration, Congress and industry debate its future. Until that debate resolves who governs orbital traffic, the referee's best data now sits with the largest player on the field.