Billionaire Elon Musk has countered president Donald Trump’s threat to “terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” in spectacular fashion: by threatening to cut off the United States’ access to outer space.
“In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately,” Musk tweeted.
But it didn’t take him long to blink. A few hours later — and after the publication of this story — Musk reversed course, agreeing to “cool off” and saying that “we won’t decommission Dragon.”
That’s not surprising. As executives at SpaceX no doubt desperately tried to explain to him after the dustup, the company would be in terrible danger without all the money it gets from NASA.
And if Musk were to make good on his threat, the United States’ space program could experience a setback of epic proportions. SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft has quickly become the de facto method for NASA astronauts to travel to the International Space Station.
In other words, the threat could prevent American astronauts from visiting the space station — especially considering that the only other American option, Boeing’s Starliner, is likely still years away from becoming a viable alternative, if ever.
It was a significant escalation in a major falling out between the world’s most powerful man and its richest one. The pair have been openly feuding about Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill,” culminating in threats and personal attacks.
The collateral damage of the feud could be enormous, particularly for the US space program.
Ars Technica‘s Eric Berger suggested that Trump ripping up Musk’s government contracts “would both end the International Space Station and simultaneously provide no way to safely deorbit it.”
“This just gets better and better,” Musk replied in a laughing emoji-laden tweet. “Go ahead, make my day…”
The news comes after the Trump administration abruptly pulled its nominee for the NASA administrator role, Jared Isaacman.
Isaacman, who was hand-picked by Musk, has been to space twice with the help of SpaceX.
The news greatly angered Musk, causing him to go on a crusade against Trump’s tax bill.
Musk’s latest threats to decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft could put the Trump administration and NASA in an extremely unfortunate position. Apart from Boeing’s much-maligned Starliner, which has yet to complete a successful crewed mission to the ISS, the only alternative to send astronauts to the space station is Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft.
While the station’s days are already numbered — NASA recently awarded SpaceX a contract to decommission the orbital lab in 2030 — continuing operations could prove extremely difficult without Dragon.
But whether Musk will make good on his threat remains to be seen, especially considering the billionaire has a lengthy track record of making empty promises.
Apart from vowing to decommission Dragon, Musk also attempted to smear Trump’s name by arguing that he’s “in the Epstein files.”
“This is the real reason they have not been made public,” he tweeted. “Have a nice day, DJT!”
Musk is clearly out for blood, even officially calling for Trump to be impeached and replaced by his vice president JD Vance.
Who will emerge victorious is anybody’s guess. If there’s one certainty, it won’t be NASA. The agency is expected to be hit by brutal cuts that could lay waste to dozens of space missions.
More on Musk: “He Just Went CRAZY”: Trump Threatens to Terminate Elon Musk’s Government Contracts
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