Russia, China smiling as Elon Musk-Donald Trump feud threatens U.S. space program

Elon Musk and Donald Trump had a big argument on social media. Trump said he might stop giving government work to Musk’s companies, SpaceX and Starlink. Musk then said on X that SpaceX will start decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately, as per reports.

A few hours later, Musk replied to another user saying he won’t go ahead with the plan to shut down the Dragon capsule. The Dragon capsule is very important, it takes astronauts and supplies to the space station and was made using government money. NASA uses SpaceX for many missions, including launching science projects and taking astronauts back to the moon later this decade, as per the report by Associated Press.

Dragon Capsule

SpaceX is the only American company right now that can send astronauts to and from the ISS using its 4-person Dragon capsules. Boeing's Starliner only flew astronauts once, but it had so many problems that the crew had to return using SpaceX's capsule after over 9 months in space.

Starliner is still grounded while NASA decides if it should fly again with cargo instead of people. SpaceX also uses Dragon for private space trips. The next trip, planned by Axiom Space, is set for next week. Cargo versions of the Dragon capsule also carry food and other things to the space station, says the Associated Press.

The only other way to send people to space is Russia’s Soyuz capsule. It can take 3 people, usually 2 Russians and 1 American. SpaceX also takes 1 Russian on its flights, so both countries always have someone in space if something goes wrong.

People were sent into space by SpaceX in 2020, making it the first private company to do so. This helped NASA not depend too much on Russia. Before that, NASA had to pay a lot of money to use Russian rockets. NASA also uses Russian rockets and a U.S. company called Northrop Grumman to send cargo to space, says the Associated Press.

SpaceX does more than just Dragon

SpaceX rockets also launch science missions for NASA and military equipment. Last year, NASA gave SpaceX a contract to bring down the space station safely when it reaches its end.

NASA picked SpaceX’s Starship rocket to carry astronauts from the moon’s orbit down to the surface for the first two landings. Starship had its 9th test flight last week in Texas but lost control and broke apart, according to the Associated Press report.

FAQs

Q1. Why did Elon Musk say he would stop the Dragon capsule?
He was angry after Trump said he might cancel government deals with SpaceX.

Q2. Why is the Dragon capsule so important for NASA?
Because it takes astronauts and supplies to space, and no other U.S. company can do that right now.