(AFP) – SpaceX chief Elon Musk said Thursday he would begin “decommissioning” his company’s Dragon spacecraft — vital for ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station — after US President Donald Trump threatened to terminate his government 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 comments — which the mercurial billionaire later appeared to walk back — came after Trump and Musk’s nearly year-long political alliance imploded in spectacular fashion, with the two trading public insults on social media.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon — a gumdrop-shaped capsule that flies atop a Falcon 9 rocket and splashes down in the ocean — is currently the only US spacecraft certified to carry crew to the ISS under a contract worth more than $4.9 billion. A variant, Cargo Dragon, delivers supplies, as the name suggests.
Following Musk’s announcement, NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens said on X that the government space agency would “continue to execute upon the President’s vision for the future of space.” “We will continue to work with our industry partners to ensure the President’s objectives in space are met,” she said.
NASA had hoped to certify Boeing’s Starliner for crewed missions, but that program has faced severe delays. Its most recent test flight last year ended in failure after the spacecraft experienced propulsion issues en route to the orbital lab with its first astronaut crew. The Starliner ultimately returned to Earth empty, while the two astronauts were brought home by SpaceX earlier this year.
Crew Dragon’s certification in 2020 ended nearly a decade of US reliance on Russian Soyuz rockets to transport astronauts following the retirement of the Space Shuttle program in 2011. American astronauts still fly aboard Soyuz rockets, while Russian cosmonauts ride on Crew Dragons under a longstanding seat-swap agreement.
In addition to NASA missions, Crew Dragon also flies private missions — most recently Fram2, which carried tourists over the Earth’s poles. The next scheduled crew launch is Tuesday’s Axiom-4 mission, which will see a Crew Dragon transport astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary to the ISS.
© 2024 AFP
