Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
30-07-2025
NASSAU: When SpaceX was negotiating a deal with the Bahamas last year to allow its Falcon 9 rocket boosters to land within the island nation’s territory, Elon Musk’s company offered a sweetener; complimentary Starlink internet terminals for the country’s defense vessels, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The rocket landing deal, unlocking a more efficient path to space for SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9, was then signed in February last year by Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper, who bypassed consultation with several other key government ministers, one of the sources and another person familiar with the talks said.
Reuters could not determine the dollar value of the Starlink arrangement or the number of vessels outfitted with Starlink terminals. The Bahamian military, mostly a sea-faring force with a fleet of roughly a dozen vessels, did not respond to a request for comment.
Media found no evidence that Cooper broke any laws or regulations in striking the deal with SpaceX, but the people said the quick approval created tension within the Bahamian government.
By this April, two months after the first and only Falcon 9 booster landed off the nation’s Exuma coast, the Bahamas announced it had put the landing agreement on hold. The government said publicly it wanted a post-launch investigation after the explosion in March of a different SpaceX rocket, Starship, whose mid-flight failure sent hundreds of pieces of debris washing ashore on Bahamian islands but the suspension was the result of the blindsided officials’ frustration as well, two of the people said.
“While no toxic materials were detected and no significant environmental impact was reported, the incident prompted a reevaluation of our engagement with SpaceX,” Cooper, also the country’s tourism chief, told media through a spokesperson.
SpaceX did not respond to questions for comment. Cooper and the prime minister’s office did not respond to questions about how the rocket landing deal was arranged.
SpaceX’s setbacks in the Bahamas, detailed in this story for the first time, offer a rare glimpse into its fragile diplomacy with foreign governments.
As the company races to expand its dominant space business, it must navigate the geopolitical complexities of a high-stakes, global operation involving advanced satellites and orbital-class rockets, some prone to explosive failure, flying over or near sovereign territories.
These political risks were laid bare last month when Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her government was considering taking legal action against SpaceX over “contamination” related to Starship launches from Starbase, the company’s rocket site in Texas, 2 miles north of the Mexican border.
Her comments came after a Starship rocket exploded into a giant fireball earlier this month on a test stand at Starbase. Responding to Sheinbaum on X, SpaceX said its teams have been hindered from recovering Starship debris that landed in Mexican territory.
SpaceX is pursuing aggressive global expansion as Musk, its CEO, has become a polarizing figure on the world stage, especially following high-profile clashes with several governments during his time advising President Donald Trump. More recently he has fallen out with Trump himself.
Starlink, SpaceX’s fast-growing satellite internet venture, is a central source of revenue funding Musk’s vision to send human missions to Mars aboard Starship but to scale globally, SpaceX must continue to win the trust of foreign governments with which it wishes to operate the service, as rivals from China and companies like Jeff Bezos’ Amazon ramp up competing satellite networks. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
