What occurs in Washington decidedly doesn’t keep in Washington, with virtually each motion taken by the richest and strongest nation on this planet having a near-immediate world response—on tariffs, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, world well being, and extra. Typically these reactions aren’t even confined to the planet—because the latest social-media smackdown between President Donald Trump and former adviser Elon Musk illustrated.
On June 5, because the feud between the 2 erstwhile besties escalated, Trump posted on his Reality Social Platform, “The best means to save cash in our Finances, Billions and Billions of {Dollars}, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I used to be all the time stunned that Biden didn’t do it!”
Simply over 90 minutes later, in a submit on X, Musk clapped again: “In gentle of the President’s assertion about cancellation of my authorities contracts, @SpaceX will start decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft instantly.”
Not lengthy after that submit went huge, Musk quietly deleted it. Later that night, an X consumer posted to Trump and Musk, “It is a disgrace this backwards and forwards. You might be each higher than this. Cool off and take a step again for a pair days.” Minutes later, Musk responded, “Good recommendation. OK, we gained’t decommission Dragon.”
Learn extra: The Musk-Trump Implosion Can Be Seen From House
That defused the instant emergency, however the menace and counterthreat raised questions on simply how dependent America’s area efforts are on the whims of two typically mercurial billionaires. Might a mere phrase from Musk floor the nation? Might a stroke of a Trump Sharpie equally hobble SpaceX? The brief reply in each instances is possibly, however not going.
There’s no overstating simply how central SpaceX has grow to be within the area sector within the 23 years because it was based because the House Exploration Applied sciences Company. Because the inaugural flight of the corporate’s Falcon 9 in 2010, the rocket has grow to be the world’s workhorse automobile for rides to orbit, with 485 accomplished missions, together with 440 acrobatic landings of its reusable first stage. The rocket and its Dragon spacecraft present common service to the Worldwide House Station (ISS), carrying crews up and down, and ferrying cargo and provides aboard uncrewed Dragons. In 2024, the corporate’s bigger Falcon Heavy launched NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft to Jupiter’s moon Europa. It’s set to launch the formidable Nancy Grace Roman Telescope in Might 2027.
The working relationship between SpaceX and the federal government is under no circumstances restricted to NASA. In April, as Ars Technica reviews, the U.S. House Power awarded the corporate a $5.9 billion contract, making SpaceX the main supplier of launch providers for Pentagon satellites. The navy can be a significant buyer of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite tv for pc constellation, with 50 navy instructions now utilizing the orbiting Web service, in accordance with Protection Information.
“We’ve $22 billion in authorities contracts,” mentioned Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and COO, in a reside streamed public panel final yr. “We earned that. We bid it, we have been the bottom value, greatest bidder, we gained and we execute.”
If something, the corporate goes to have the chance to execute nonetheless extra, reinforcing the ties between SpaceX and the federal government. In 2021, NASA chosen SpaceX’s still-in-development Starship rocket to function the lander that’s deliberate to hold American astronauts down from lunar orbit to the floor of the moon someday earlier than the tip of the last decade. In 2024, the area company tapped SpaceX to construct the automobile that can nudge the ISS out of orbit when this system ends in 2030. And in Might, Trump’s so-called skinny finances referred to as for NASA to cancel its over-budget and behind-schedule House Launch System, the twenty first century reply to the Nineteen Sixties’ Saturn V moon rocket, leaving Starship because the likeliest successor.
Meantime, whereas Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft was presupposed to be becoming a member of Dragon in offering rides to the ISS—taking a share of the launch enterprise income from SpaceX—Starliner famously failed in its inaugural flight final yr. This left astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams stranded aboard the station for 8 months, on a mission that was presupposed to final merely eight days. Equally, Blue Origin, the rocket firm based by Musk’s fellow mega-billionaire Jeff Bezos, was anticipated to supply some launch-service competitors for SpaceX, however the firm has managed only one, solely partially profitable orbital launch of its New Glenn rocket, in January 2025, and has restricted most of its exercise to flying popgun suborbital missions for rich area vacationers.
“It’s not a deliberate monopoly,” mentioned Shotwell within the reside stream. “If our rivals may get it collectively…”
All of this leaves SpaceX and the federal government mutually interdependent, with Washington relying on the corporate to supply providers nobody else at present can, and the corporate completely happy for the paying work. That’s to not say neither one may foul the joint nest. Trump’s nomination of personal astronaut and Musk buddy Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator was broadly seen as an indication of Musk’s affect on the president—and Trump’s determination on Might 31 to tug the nomination was equally seen as the primary signal of the rift between Musk and Trump. However the president has made no different strikes in opposition to Musk-world, and Musk’s determination to delete his provocative submit on X could have cooled tempers on either side. SpaceX buyers and different clients could function a brake on Musk’s worst tendencies, and lawmakers from space-heavy states together with California, Texas, and Florida could equally restrain Trump.
None of this says that neither man is past appearing in opposition to his personal—and his authorities’s or his firm’s—greatest pursuits. The scorpion within the venerable fable famously stung the frog that was its solely experience throughout the river—explaining earlier than they each sank and drowned that “it’s in my nature.” Trump’s and Musk’s natures have all the time been impulsive. The area and protection sectors can solely hope the 2 males present some restraint now.
