Considering the $16.1 billion in contracts the federal government has handed to SpaceX since 2003, the interests of SpaceX and the agencies counting on the company to fulfill the nation’s space policy goals are increasingly aligned. “We call it agency capture,” says [Jared] Margolis. “Agencies are not there to protect the public; they’re there to promote the businesses that they regulate, in a lot of ways.”

– “Elon Musk’s Texas Takeover” by Abby Vesoulis, Mother Jones, January/February 2024 issue, American Oligarchy.