On Thursday, Elon Musk announced that SpaceX will begin the immediate decommissioning of its Dragon spacecraft in response to President Donald Trump’s threats to cancel government contracts with his companies.
This statement, shared on Musk’s social media platform X, comes amidst a heated exchange between Musk and Trump, which was ignited when the Tesla CEO criticized a significant tax bill proposed by the Republican president.
“In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately,” Musk indicated in his post.
The Dragon spacecraft serves as the only U.S. solution for transporting crews to and from the International Space Station (ISS). Recently, a Dragon capsule successfully returned NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to Earth after they had been stranded for months at the ISS due to issues with a Boeing Starliner capsule.
SpaceX stands as one of the largest federal contractors, having secured over $20 billion in contracts from NASA, the Air Force, and various other agencies since 2008.
As detailed on SpaceX’s website, “The Dragon spacecraft is capable of carrying up to 7 passengers to and from Earth orbit, and beyond,” underscoring its importance in space travel.
Furthermore, the company states, “It is the only spacecraft currently flying that is capable of returning significant amounts of cargo to Earth, and is the first private spacecraft to take humans to the space station.”
SpaceX is currently in the process of developing a successor to the Dragon spacecraft.
Last November, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell announced that the Dragon would continue to operate for an additional six to eight years.
The company is in the midst of testing its Starship rocket, which encountered an explosion during its third launch attempt in May.
