In the Feud Between Trump and Musk, NASA Has a Lot to Lose

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, h ... Read full article.