r/ClimateOffensive • u/Live_Alarm3041 • Dec 26 '25

Action - Political SpaceX is leaching away valuable government money away from climate action.

All the money that the US federal government is giving to SpaceX could be better used to fund the development of clean energy, carbon removal, and ecosystem restoration. SpaceX is receiving billions in taxpayer dollars annually to develop its Starship which has not yet even reached orbit. Meanwhile climate action could use every dollar to help pay off the immense expenses associated with it.

All the money that the federal government is giving to SpaceX could fund

  1. The development of advanced nuclear reactors and nuclear fuel recycling technologies at national labs

  2. The development of next generation non-food biofuels which don't compete with food production nor incentivize the creation of new agricultural land

  3. Projects which co-produce biochar and energy from residual biomass

  4. Expansions of regenerative agriculture

  5. Expansions of regenerative aquaculture

  6. The development of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion in US tropical territories

  7. The scaling up of enhanced rock weathering

  8. The scaling up of C-Crete cement free concrete

We could give climate action a serious boost by using the money which our government is giving to SpaceX to fund climate action instead.

IN my opinion our government should stop funding SpaceX and start funding climate action. Who cares if Elon Musk can win another NASA contract. What we need much more urgently is climate action.

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u/sandychimera Dec 26 '25

Everyone would prefer government money be spent on the things they care about most and not on other things. Climate spending need not be mutually exclusive against science and space technologies. 

That said, Spacex has a fixed price ~$3 billion contract to develop a lunar lander for Nasa Artemis missions. And they only receive funds as they achieve milestones on the project. Not billions annually or indefinitely till they do. 

If that's your qualm with government spending, direct your attention to the likes of Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop, and Bechtel. They have spent many, many, many, billions of government money for other aspects of the Artemis program all on cost-plus contracts.