How Elon Musk's Friendship With the F.C.C. Smooths the Way for SpaceX's I.P.O.
Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has greenlighted regulatory requests for the company’s Starlink satellite internet service and lavished praise on its chief executive.
Link to the full article
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/08/technology/elon-musk-brendan-carr-fcc-spacex.html?unlocked_article_code=1.qFA.7yQ-.X11AP6EHiOAx&smid=url-share
“A historic day at Starbase,” Mr. Carr wrote in the post, referring to the Texas headquarters of Mr. Musk’s rocket and satellite company. “Another giant leap forward.”
Around the same time, Mr. Musk recommended Mr. Carr to Mr. Trump as an ideal leader for the agency. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Carr got the job.
Since then, the F.C.C. chairman has lavished praise on Mr. Musk, repeatedly expressing his admiration for the tech mogul. He has greenlighted a satellite request from SpaceX and changed some of the agency’s rules to benefit the company.
Mr. Carr’s stance on SpaceX and Mr. Musk stands out from his behavior with other companies that the F.C.C. oversees. He started an investigation into the satellite company EchoStar, a SpaceX rival, after Mr. Musk’s company complained about it. He targeted the television networks ABC and NBC over their coverage of Mr. Trump, threatening to take away their broadcast licenses. And he threatened to block media and telecom deals over their diversity, equity and inclusion policies, opening investigations into Disney and Comcast.... "