Elon Musk Halts US Space Project Over Rift With Trump

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced on Thursday plans to begin phasing out the company’s Dragon spacecraft — a crucial vehicle used to transport NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station — following a threat from President Donald Trump to revoke SpaceX’s federal contracts.

“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.

The remarks came in the wake of a dramatic breakdown in the once-close political alliance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, with both figures publicly exchanging barbs on social media over recent months.

At the center of the fallout is SpaceX’s Crew Dragon — a sleek, gumdrop-shaped capsule that launches atop a Falcon 9 rocket and returns via ocean splashdown. It currently remains the only U.S. spacecraft certified to transport astronauts to the International Space Station under a contract valued at over $4.9 billion.

A separate variant, Cargo Dragon, continues to deliver supplies and equipment to the orbital outpost.

In response to Musk’s announcement that he would begin winding down the Crew Dragon program, NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens took to X (formerly Twitter) to reaffirm the agency’s commitment to President Biden’s space agenda.

“We remain focused on delivering the President’s vision for space exploration,” she wrote. “NASA will continue working with its industry partners to ensure those goals are fulfilled.”

Meanwhile, NASA’s long-anticipated alternative, Boeing’s Starliner, has suffered repeated setbacks. Despite hopes for a dual-provider model, Starliner has yet to be certified for operational crewed missions. Its most recent test flight ended in failure due to propulsion system issues while en route to the ISS, casting further doubt on the timeline for its readiness.

The Starliner capsule eventually made its return to Earth without crew onboard, while the two astronauts initially assigned to it were brought back earlier in the year aboard a SpaceX spacecraft.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, officially certified for crewed missions in 2020, marked the end of nearly ten years of U.S. dependence on Russia’s Soyuz rockets for human spaceflight — a necessity that arose after the Space Shuttle program was retired in 2011.

Today, a reciprocal seat-swap agreement keeps international cooperation alive: American astronauts still occasionally launch aboard Soyuz, while Russian cosmonauts hitch rides on Crew Dragons.

Beyond NASA missions, Crew Dragon continues to support private spaceflights. Its latest, the Fram2 mission, treated tourists to a unique journey over the Earth’s polar regions.

Looking ahead, the next crewed launch is slated for Tuesday. The Axiom-4 mission will send astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary to the International Space Station aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Africa Today News, New York