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In the heat of the action, Elon Musk threatened to publish the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, then he took it back. In doing so, however, the rocket billionaire resulted in NASA in his disorderly rupture with Donald Trump, with the agency’s access to Orbit now.
Musk and Trump separated earlier this week, and their breakup was very messy. Shortly after leaving the administration, Musk began to criticize the budget bill adopted by the Republicans at the American house, causing a public quarrel between the president and the billionaire oligarch. The child’s back and forth was entertaining, until it was not. “SpaceX will immediately start the demons of his dragon spaceship,” threatened Musk on X. He then followed the advice of another user to “refresh himself”, and wrote“Ok, we don’t demonstrate the dragon.”
Although short -lived, the threat put the International Space Station (ISS) in danger. NASA relies strongly on the SpaceX dragon to transport its astronauts and freight supplies to the orbit laboratory, having weaned rides aboard the spaceship of Soyuz in Russia. Closest alternative to SpaceX, Boeing, Miserably To prove the capacity of his vehicle to reach the ISS safely. Without dragon, NASA would lose its access to a low terrestrial orbit and could not use the space station at the same capacity.
We do not know how serious musk was in his threat, but it was a serious lever display on his part. SpaceX is undoubtedly an industry leader, and the cancellation of its government contracts would harm 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, the former Trump chief strategist, called on the president to nationalize SpaceX under a 1950 law known as the Defense Production Act The Wall Street Journal. During his show, Live warBannon urged the use of the law of the era of the Korean War which grants the president the powers to prioritize national defense. The plan may seem scandalous now, but the current administration is unpredictable. Trump has not yet answered Bannon’s call.
If he does not go to nationalize SpaceX, Trump could also sacrifice NASA to prove a point against his opponent now, Musk. Trump threatened on Thursday, threatened to reduce government contracts granted to SpaceX. Aside from Dragon, NASA also plans to use the Starship rocket of SpaceX to launch astronauts on the Moon as part of the Artemis program. The agency has already invested $ 4 billion in the development of the rocket and the cancellation of its contract with SpaceX would leave it without a viable alternative.
In short, NASA needs SpaceX and cancel the company’s government contracts would affect the national space program as a whole. At this point, it comes back to how much Trump is ready to sacrifice in order to gain the upper hand in his current quarrel with musk while NASA is taken in the middle.
