Musk announced the withdrawal of Dragon, but changed his mind. Expert: “The USA cannot replace SpaceX, Musk is reducing dependence on government contracts”

Donald Trump and Elon Musk got into a public spat on social networks. Musk, the founder of SpaceX, announced the decision to decommission the manned Dragon spacecraft - currently the only transport with which NASA can independently deliver astronauts to the ISS without relying on Russian Soyuz.

“In light of the President’s announcement that my government contracts have been revoked, SpaceX will immediately begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft,” Musk wrote on his social media site X.

Musk later changed his mind about decommissioning Dragon. This is his response to user X, who asked him to “cool down and step back for a few days.”

As Georgy Trishkin, a rocket launch analyst and author of scientific articles on space and rocket science, told The Insider, he regards the actions of SpaceX and the Trump administration in the current conflict as “blackmail on both sides”:

“Canceling existing contracts under the fixed price system for SpaceX will paralyze key areas of NASA, including the delivery of astronauts to the ISS and landing on the Moon as part of the Artemis program. The United States simply does not have the ability to quickly replace these elements - Boeing's Starliner is under revision, and Blue Origin's lunar Blue Moon lags behind Starship HLS.

At the same time, SpaceX’s financial dependence on government contracts is decreasing thanks to growing financial flows from Starlink. SpaceX's turnover this year could exceed $15.5 billion.

Cancellation of existing contracts would require a complex procedure involving Congress. If the skirmish on Twitter has consequences, it will clearly not be immediate. So now there is no immediate risk of stopping American flights for the next few missions.

We are witnessing live a split between public and private astronautics, which will lead to the parallel existence of several independent programs. With NASA's planned budget cuts, the current Trump administration is the leading threat to American space. And first of all, this benefits China.”

Crew Dragon is a reusable manned spacecraft developed by SpaceX. It seats up to seven people and was first unveiled by Elon Musk in May 2014. Later that year, the company entered into a contract with NASA to use it.

Today, missions to deliver crews to the International Space Station are carried out either with the help of Crew Dragon from the American side or on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Disagreements between Musk and Trump began with the president’s refusal to appoint astronaut Jared Isaacman, with whom Musk has close ties, as head of NASA. The conflict intensified after Musk sharply condemned Trump's tax bill. The White House is now preparing a telephone conversation between Trump and Musk to end their public quarrel, Politico writes . The correspondence skirmish led to a fall in the shares of the entrepreneur’s companies and criticism of both in the United States.

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