Trump-Musk row: SpaceX CEO announces decommissioning of Dragon spacecraft

Elon Musk on Thursday (Jun 5) said that SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft. This comes after US President Donald Trump threatened to terminate the billionaire’s government subsidies and contracts amid their war of words over the tax bill.

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

Trump earlier said, “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is currently the only US spacecraft that is certified for ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station under a contract worth over $4.9 billion. The gumdrop-shaped capsule flies atop a Falcon 9 rocket and splashes down in the ocean. Its variant, Cargo Dragon, delivers supplies to the ISS for astronauts.

NASA to continue working on Trump’s vision for space future

After Musk’s announcement to decommission the spacecraft, NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens said that the agency will continue to work on the president’s vision for the future of space.

“NASA will continue to execute upon the President’s vision for the future of space,” Stevens said on X. “We will continue to work with our industry partners to ensure the President’s objectives in space are met.”

NASA had hoped to certify Boeing's Starliner for crewed missions. However, the program has been met with severe delays. In a recent test flight last year, the spacecraft faced failure after it experienced propulsion issues en route to the orbital lab with its first astronaut crew.

The two astronauts, Sunita Williams and Butch Willmore, were brought home aboard SpaceX Dragon spacecraft earlier this year. Starliner, on the other hand, returned empty after being deemed not safe for carrying the astronauts back home.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon

Crew Dragon’s certification in 2020 ended the reliance on Russian Soyuz rockets to carry astronauts to space after the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011.

Apart from NASA missions, Crew Dragon also flies private missions, with the most recent being Fram2, which carried tourists over the Earth’s poles.

The next scheduled launch for the spacecraft is the Axiom-4 mission on Tuesday (Jun 10). The Crew Dragon will carry astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary to the space station.

Meanwhile, as the rift between Trump and Musk grows wider, Tesla shares have also plummeted more than 15 per cent on Thursday, recording a loss of over $100 billion in market capitalisation.