SpaceX competitors say Elon Musk is using his power and influence to keep them down, according to a report, with some alleging that the billionaire is using what they perceive to be anticompetitive business practices. Industry executives say they believe SpaceX set prices for some of its services with the aim of undermining the financial plans of smaller competitors, according to The New York Times, estimating that SpaceX must be selling the services for below its own costs, though an executive at the company insisted it makes money on all its launches. Other competitors told the Times they’d learned that SpaceX uses contracts with some of its clients that are designed to discourage those clients from using rival launch providers. “It’s anti-competitive and anti-American and I don’t like it,” Jim Cantrell, the founder of space transportation company Phantom Space, told the Times. Another executive, Tim Ellis of Relativity Space, claims SpaceX had made multiple overt attempts to prevent his business from growing.
