Elon Musk is now not seeing eye-to-eye along with his former bestie within the White Home.
The SpaceX founder and CEO not too long ago wrapped up his 130-day appointment as a “particular authorities worker,” throughout which he led the cost- and regulation-cutting Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE).
Musk and President Donald Trump seemingly parted on a optimistic observe, sharing type phrases about one another throughout an Oval Workplace press convention on Might 30. “In the present day, it is a couple of man named Elon,” Trump mentioned to reporters final week, calling Musk “one of many best enterprise leaders and innovators the world has ever produced.”
However their public relationship started to bitter shortly thereafter, following Musk’s criticism of Trump’s “Large Stunning Invoice.”
“This huge, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending invoice is a disgusting abomination. Disgrace on those that voted for it: you already know you probably did flawed. You already know it,” Musk mentioned by way of X on Tuesday (June 3).
Trump fired again, posting on his social media website Fact Social as we speak (June 5) that “Elon was ‘sporting skinny,’ and I requested him to depart.”
The president adopted that with one other submit, which mentioned that the US may get monetary savings by canceling authorities contracts and subsidies awarded to Musk’s corporations. In response to this menace, Musk shot again with one among his personal.
“In gentle of the President’s assertion about cancellation of my authorities contracts, @SpaceX will start decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft instantly,” Musk posted on X, which he purchased again in 2022, when it was nonetheless referred to as Twitter.
In gentle of the President’s assertion about cancellation of my authorities contracts, @SpaceX will start decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft instantly pic.twitter.com/NG9sijjkgWJune 5, 2025
It is laborious to say when or how this spat will play out, however the present trajectory may level to a bleak consequence for American spaceflight.
Cancelation of SpaceX’s authorities contracts would get rid of the nation’s skill to launch astronauts to area from American soil. SpaceX’s crew and cargo Dragon spacecraft variants have modified the panorama of NASA operations aboard the Worldwide House Station (ISS) and ushered in a brand new period of U.S. spaceflight.
The decommissioning of Dragon — if Musk was certainly critical about doing so, and never simply calling Trump’s bluff — would spell the digital finish of U.S.-based astronaut launches throughout one of many area station’s most sturdy, traffic-heavy phases of operation — an absence that may seemingly be irreparable within the timeframe main as much as the area station’s personal decommissioning in 2030, which SpaceX has additionally been employed to supervise.
And, whereas Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft has the potential to fill Dragon’s crew-carrying footwear, it has confronted a sequence of issues; Starliner shouldn’t be but licensed to fly operational astronaut missions and continues to be a number of months away from launching once more.
A few of SpaceX’s extra substantial authorities contracts embrace NASA’s Business Crew Program and cargo resupply providers for the ISS and the area station’s deorbit automobile. NASA additionally picked SpaceX’s next-gen Starship spacecraft to be the primary crewed lunar lander for its Artemis moon program. If all goes as deliberate, Starship will put NASA astronauts down on the moon for the primary time in 2027, on the Artemis 3 mission. The cessation of those contracts — alongside the almost 25% lower to NASA’s general finances and roughly 50% lower to its science applications that the White Home has proposed for 2026 — may mark the top of NASA as we at the moment understand it.
One Crew Dragon is at the moment docked on the ISS; it is in the course of SpaceX’s Crew-10 astronaut mission for NASA. The subsequent Dragon in NASA’s business crew lineup is slated to launch the Crew-11 mission no sooner than July. Nevertheless, that mission could now be in jeopardy, together with many others.
It is unclear, nonetheless, what a decommissioning of Dragon would imply for SpaceX’s different personal spaceflight endeavors. Houston-based firm Axiom House is simply days away from launching its fourth personal astronaut mission to the ISS aboard a brand-new Dragon spacecraft, which was delivered to its launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy House Heart this week. SpaceX additionally not too long ago carried out the primary human spaceflight in a polar orbit round Earth as a part of the personal Fram2 astronaut mission, and broke related floor with the first personal spacewalk throughout the Polaris Daybreak mission final September.
That mission was a part of Jared Isaacman’s Polaris Program, which goals to increase the sphere of personal spaceflight. Isaacman is a billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist who has used his two SpaceX spaceflights, Polaris Daybreak and its predecessor mission Inspiration4, to boost cash for Saint Jude Kids’s Analysis Hospital.
Till not too long ago, Isaacman was Trump’s decide to turn into NASA administrator, and was anticipated to be confirmed by Congress this week. However the White Home unexpectedly pulled his nomination over the weekend, presumably signaling the widening divide between President and Musk.
In an emailed response to House.com relating to Trump’s suggestion to cancel authorities contracts for Musk’s corporations, and to Musk’s directive for SpaceX to decommission Dragon, NASA press secretary Bethany Stevens mentioned, “NASA will proceed to execute upon the President’s imaginative and prescient for the way forward for area. We are going to proceed to work with our trade companions to make sure the President’s goals in area are met.”