The Nickles Group is repping SpaceX, the rocket ship company of Tesla Motors Elon Musk, for a broad range of issues including aerospace, defense, budgetary, intellectual property and science & technology.

Former Oklahoma Senator Don Nickles leads the lobbying team. He’s assisted by Hazen Marshall, former deputy chief of staff to Nickles; Emily Porter, ex-policy advisor to House Speaker John Boehner, Don Kent, one-time advisor to Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson and ex-Homeland Security Dept. boss Tom Ridge.

TNG joins Patton Boggs, a 90K quarterly retainer client, on SpaceX’s payroll.

NASA on Dec. 13 picked SpaceX to run its mothballed launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the next five years.

That facility launched the Apollo moon crafts Space shuttle, but was deemed by NASA as too expensive to maintain.  

NASA said the deal allows the use of “this valuable national asset by a private-sector, commercial space partner will ensure its continued use in support of U.S. space activities.”

Space X, which has launched more than 50 rockets from Cape Canaveral Air Station Vandenburg Air Force Base.

It won rights to pad 39A in a pitch against Blue Origin, the venture of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, which plans to launch its first rocket in 2018.