Musk threatens to cripple the US space program
The SpaceX CEO announced that his company "will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately," after President Donald Trump threatened to end all US government subsidies and contracts with Elon Musk's companies.
Trump and Musk had a dramatic exchange on social media on June 5 over the US president's "Big and Beautiful" federal tax and spending bill, which Musk - who once headed the government's efficiency department - criticized as pushing the US into "debt slavery".
"The easiest way to save money in our Budget, billions and billions of dollars, is to end Elon's subsidies and government contracts," Trump declared on Truth Social, arguing that the only reason the Tesla CEO is "MAD" about the legislation is because it would cut tax credits for electric vehicle buyers.
“In light of the President's announcement canceling my government contracts, SpaceX will begin decommissioning the Dragon spacecraft immediately,” Musk responded on X just minutes later.
SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft is the only US spacecraft currently certified and capable of carrying American astronauts into space. NASA has relied on the spacecraft to transport cargo and crew to the International Space Station since 2020, after a long hiatus following the retirement of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.
Rival Boeing's Starliner project has been plagued by years of delays and technical problems. The project's first crewed flight last June - originally scheduled for 2017 - ended with two NASA astronauts stranded on the ISS after the spacecraft was deemed unsafe to return to. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams only returned safely to Earth in March, aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon, after President Trump urged Musk to help rescue the pair, criticizing his predecessor Joe Biden for leaving them "stranded."
SpaceX has received more than $20 billion in contracts from NASA, the Air Force and other U.S. agencies since 2008, making it one of the largest federal contractors. It remains unclear how serious Musk’s threat is and how it will affect the U.S. space program.
Earlier this year, NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos extended a seat-sharing agreement, allowing Americans to travel to the ISS on Soyuz spacecraft, through 2027.
