NASA boss lauds SpaceX, but ‘concerned’ over Elon Musk-Vladimir Putin’s ‘secret’ talks: ‘If the story is true...’

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson sought an investigation into an exclusive report that claimed that SpaceX and Tesla owner Elon Musk "has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022".

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Thursday that the discussions between Musk and Putin "touch on personal topics, business and geopolitical tensions." The report stated that this information was "confirmed by several current and former US, European and Russian officials".

The report claimed that the two men allegedly discussed personal topics as well as those related to business and geopolitical tensions. Musk’s business ties with US intelligence and military agencies have given him “unique visibility into some of America’s most sensitive space programs,” the Journal wrote, and he has access to certain classified information. 

Neither Musk nor Putin has not commented on the report yet.

‘If it’s true…’

Reacting to the reports, NASA's Bill Nelson told Semafor’s Burgess Everett, "[SpaceX] have been phenomenally successful ...I don’t know if that story is true...If it’s true there have been multiple conversations with Elon Musk and the president of Russia, then that would be concerning, particularly for NASA and the Department of Defense,” he added.

Bill Nelson was speaking at Semafor’s World Economy Summit in Washington, DC.

During an interview on Friday, Nelson lauded SpaceX Dragon craft and Falcon 9 rocket. It is the Dragon spacecraft that will bring that NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore from space. The duo has launched aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft in June. However, some faults in the Boeing vehicle prompted NASA to ditch it and employed SpaceX craft instead to bring back the astronauts, who had been spending extra time in space.

Why is NASA boss concerned?

SpaceX is a key commercial partner for NASA. According to CNN, any such "secret" conservation between Musk and Putin would raise national security concerns as SpaceX’s relationships with the US space agency, NASA, and the US military may have granted Musk access to sensitive government information and US intelligence.