The sudden open war Between Elon Musk and Donald Trump He has just jump to space with threats in both directions that could suppose the anticipated end of the International Space Station.
Trump gave the first blow. After investing 277 million dollars in the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, Elon Musk He left his role in front of Doge With a seemingly friendly farewell broadcast live from the White House. The next day, the president of the United States withdrew the nomination of Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator.
Isaacman, an old Spacex partner, had been recommended by Musk to lead NASA. The nomination was made public six months ago. Everything was ready for the businessman to assume the highest position in the space agency, but Trump has commented that he withdrew his nomination to discover that Isaacman was a Democrat. Isaacman, meanwhile, clarified that the government I had always known of his donations passed to the opposite party.
Battle of Gallos. If something has in common Elon Musk and Donald Trump is his immeasurable thirst for attention. Although his relationship was already broken, he climbed after Musk described the megaproject of the law ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ of the Trump administration as a “disgusting abomination”. According to the tycoon, the law increases public debt instead of reducing it.
This triggered several stabs that happened on Thursday in a matter of hours. Some as aggressive as an elon tweet suggesting that Trump has not published Epstein’s papers because he comes out in them. But the main cross of accusations and threats has been the following:
“Elon was becoming a heavy one, I asked him to leave, I removed the EV mandate (the Biden order that forces more than half of the vehicles sold in 2032 to be electric) and even if I knew from the beginning that he was going to remove it, he went crazy!”
Elon:
“Without me, Trump would have lost the elections, the Democrats would control the House of Representatives and the Republicans would have 51-49 in the Senate. What ingratitude.”
“The easiest way to save money from our budget, billions of dollars, is to end Elon’s subsidies and government contracts. I was always surprised that Biden did not do it!”
Elon:
“Before the president’s statement about the cancellation of my government contracts, Spacex will begin to dismantle the Dragon spacecraft immediately.”
The end of the ISS? Although SpaceX’s main business Be the Starlink Satellite Internet servicethe cancellation of all its public contracts would affect multiple government, military and NASA programs, including the resupply and transport flights of astronauts to the International Space Station.
With the Boeing Starliner capsule In an indeterminate limbothe Crew Dragon of Spacex is the only ship available in the United States for crew rotations in the ISS. To top it off, NASA committed to its international partners to keep the space station operational until 2030. For all this, Trump’s threat seems impossible to materialize. Nevertheless.
If by Musk it were. Elon Musk answered the threat of running out of public contracts with an even worse threat: the immediate dismantling of the Dragon program. It would look like a heated without much route, if it weren’t because it coincides with The wishes that the businessman had expressed Previously: advance the end of the ISS and focus on the conquest of Mars.
It is not completely impossible to happen (Musk has been very clear in the past on Starship and Mars as company priorities), But dismantling the Dragon would be a headache, in addition to NASA, for all types of Spacex partners: ESA, the Japanese space agency, the Canadian space agency, Axiom, the companies that had them for their commercial stations, and a long etc.
To top it off, NASA had commissioned Spacex the development of the spacecraft that will be in charge of exorbiting the ISS After 2030. If there is a public contract that should not be canceled now is that. Leave a 455 tons space station to your fate and the size of a football field does not suit anyone.
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