Musk-Trump rupture poses serious threat to NASA, Pentagon programs

New York: Elon Musk’s threat, which he later retracted, to cut off NASA’s use of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft would be a huge blow to NASA, depriving the space agency of the only American vehicle capable of transporting astronauts to the International Space Station and dramatically changing how NASA would access the $100 billion orbiting laboratory, The Washington Post has reported.

The threat, posted on X, came during an escalating fight between the wealthiest man in the world and President Donald Trump, after Trump had threatened to cancel all of Musk’s company’s federal contracts. “Given SpaceX’s importance to multiple federal programs, severing those relationships could leave NASA as well as the Pentagon and intelligence agencies in a lurch,” noted the report.

Several hours after making the threat, Musk relented, saying in response to a post on X that he should cool off and reconsider: “Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon.”

Over the years, SpaceX has become a vital contractor, launching sensitive national security payloads such as satellites that provide missile warning, battlefield communication and guide munitions to precise targets, Xinhua news agency reported.

In a statement, Bethany Stevens, NASA’s press secretary, did not address how NASA would continue to fly its astronauts to the ISS without SpaceX, writing only that “NASA will continue to execute upon the President’s vision for the fulfillment of space. We will continue to work with our industry partners to ensure the President’s objectives in space are met.”

Earlier Elon Musk called for the impeachment of US President Donald Trump and announced the decommissioning of the vital SpaceX programme after accusing that Trump’s name is in the Epstein files, according to media reports.

“In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately,” Musk said in a post on X.

IANS