In the heat of the moment, Elon Musk threatened to decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and then he took it back. In doing so, however, the rocket billionaire dragged NASA into his messy breakup with Donald Trump, with the agency’s access to orbit now at stake.
Musk and Trump parted ways earlier this week, and their breakup has been very messy. Shortly after leaving the administration, Musk began criticizing the budget bill passed by Republicans in the U.S. House, instigating a public feud between the president and the billionaire oligarch. The childish back-and-forth was entertaining, until it wasn’t. “SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately,” Musk threatened on X. He later took another X user’s advice to “cool off,” and wrote, “Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon.”
Although short-lived, the threat put the International Space Station (ISS) at risk. NASA relies heavily on SpaceX’s Dragon to transport its astronauts and cargo supplies to the orbiting lab, having weaned itself from hitching rides aboard Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft. SpaceX’s closest alternative, Boeing, failed miserably at proving its vehicle’s capability to reach the ISS safely. Without Dragon, NASA would lose its access to low Earth orbit and not be able to operate the space station at the same capacity.
It’s not clear how serious Musk was in his threat, but it was a serious display of leverage on his part. SpaceX is no doubt a leader in the industry, and canceling its government contracts would hurt the national space program, which has come to rely on the private sector in recent years.
In response to Musk’s clear advantage, Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, called on the president to nationalize SpaceX under a 1950 law known as the Defense Production Act, according to The Wall Street Journal. During his show, War Room Live, Bannon urged the use of the Korean War-era law which grants the president powers to prioritize national defense. The plan might seem outrageous now, but the current administration is unpredictable. Trump has yet to respond to Bannon’s call.
If he doesn’t move to nationalize SpaceX, Trump could also sacrifice NASA for the sake of proving a point against his now opponent, Musk. On Thursday, Trump threatened to cut government contracts given to SpaceX. Aside from Dragon, NASA also plans on using SpaceX’s Starship rocket to launch astronauts to the Moon as part of the Artemis program. The agency has already invested $4 billion into the rocket’s development, and canceling its contract with SpaceX would leave it without a viable alternative.
In short, NASA needs SpaceX and canceling the company’s government contracts would affect the national space program as a whole. At this point, it comes down to how much Trump is willing to sacrifice in order to gain the upper hand in his ongoing feud with Musk while NASA is caught in the middle.
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