Trump aims for the stars as he links his campaign to Elon Musk's success at SpaceX

• The latest SpaceX success has cast another bright light on its founder, Elon Musk.
• Musk has pointed to his space exploration achievements as the sort of innovation the US needs.
• Trump has begun to echo that sentiment.

SpaceX last week pulled off a daring engineering feat.

Its 233-foot-tall Super Heavy booster separated from the Starship rocket during its fifth test flight and returned to the launch site before being caught by mechanical arms.

The major milestone advances SpaceX CEO Elon Musk closer to his objectives: to reduce the cost of space travel and — in his broader vision — establish a one-million-person colony on Mars.

It's a grand idea that former President Donald Trump has embraced. At a Pennsylvania campaign rally in early October, Trump said he wanted to see human exploration on Mars by the end of his potential second term.

"We will reach Mars before the end of my term," the former president told attendees in Pennsylvania. "Elon promised me he was going to do that."

Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the GOP vice-presidential nominee, also connected SpaceX's achievement to government aspirations.

"I believe the destiny of this country is to conquer the stars," the lawmaker wrote on X. "Whatever your views of Elon's politics, this is something that should inspire all of us."

That sort of rhetoric, whether intentional or not, links Musk's significant technological success with Trump's own campaign. And since Musk is now one of the former president's most prominent supporters, that connection could impact undecided voters.

Musk helps drive the national conversation

Musk — who is also the CEO of Tesla and the owner of X — has fully embraced Trump's political movement.

And, fresh off the success of his rocket landing, Musk is playing an increasingly visible on-the-ground role in the campaign, rallying voters to support Trump and down-ballot Republican candidates.

The billionaire tech executive has funneled about $75 million of his own fortune to the pro-Trump "America PAC" super PAC, and he's become a frequent presence on the campaign trail as Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris remain locked in a tight presidential race.

Musk has zeroed in on Pennsylvania, one of the most hotly contested swing states in the country. On Thursday, he held a town hall in suburban Philadelphia, the first of a series of events he's having with voters across the state.

At Musk's town hall in suburban Folsom, Pennsylvania, he warned that a Harris presidency would put into motion a future resembling "Mad Max" — a reference to the dystopian film series.

"I haven't been politically active before. I'm politically active now because I think the future of America and the future of civilization is at stake," he told the crowd.

Earlier this month, Musk joined Trump onstage at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he made a cameo that the former president's supporters warmly received. At the rally, Trump heralded SpaceX's work.

It remains to be seen, however, just how influential Musk's success at SpaceX, or his other companies, and his campaigning will be with voters who are still on the fence.

Peter Loge, an associate professor and the director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, told Business Insider that most voters "aren't paying attention" to Musk's space accolades.

"Most people are focused on inflation, immigration, crime, and abortion," he said. "I think things like that matter way more to the American people than whether one of his supporters successfully launched a rocket."

Loge emphasized that Musk is still useful to Trump, given his ability to fundraise and the tech mogul's influence over X.

"Trump needs money. The Trump-Vance campaign is badly trailing Harris-Walz in fundraising," Loge said. "The Democrats are outraising and outspending Republicans up and down the ballot, and Musk has access to lots of people who can write big checks."

"Musk helps control part of the national conversation," he continued. "X has an agenda-setting effect. It is a media outlet that is owned by a partisan who is using the outlet to promote partisan views, so that helps Trump."

Could Musk sway on-the-fence voters?

Since 2021, the world's richest man has become a polarizing figure in the eyes of voters.

In an NBC News poll released in September, Musk had a 34% approval rating among registered voters, with 45% of respondents disapproving of the billionaire. Among Republicans, Musk's favorability rating was a robust 62%. It was just 6% among Democrats. Independents in the survey gave Musk a 31% favorability rating, while 36% saw him in an unfavorable light.

Three years ago, Musk's favorability rating sat at 26%, while only 21% of NBC News poll respondents disapproved of him.

At Musk's town hall in Folsom, Elizabeth Chartier — a registered Republican who said she planned to back Harris — told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Musk is "so far removed from the middle-class experience in life."

"Unless he's got a really good PR team to tell him what things middle-class people want to hear, I still think it'll come off disingenuous," she said.

But SpaceX's achievement and Musk's ties to Trump could give the former president added support with some undecided voters.

In September, Trump pledged that he would create a government efficiency commission to audit the federal government should he win in November. He named Musk as the person who would lead the effort.

A Republican strategist with experience in presidential campaigns told BI that Musk's potential involvement in a second Trump term is a "big boost" for the former president.

"What's at stake in this election — or at least what's being litigated — is the last four years of the Biden-Harris administration, not just on the economy and not just on immigration and not just on foreign policy, but operational as a whole," he said. "Elon Musk, who's having so much success driving things from the private sector, is a guy that wants success in the federal government."

"In a race that might be decided by 11,000 votes or less in some states, like we saw four years ago, anything can matter. And I think in this case, this might be one of them," he added.