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Musk says SpaceX will retire Dragon spacecraft amid bitter Trump dispute (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 2 days ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, on Thursday said his company SpaceX would begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft after he engaged in an extraordinary public fallout with Donald Trump who had threatened to cancel government contracts with Musk’s businesses.

“In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately,” Musk posted on the social media platform X, which he owns.

A few minutes earlier Trump had posted on Truth Social – the media platform that he owns – that he might cancel huge lucrative contracts with Musk’s businesses, which include the SpaceX company that is building a fleet of rockets.

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[-] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 88 points 2 days ago

Aaaaaand...this is why you don't outsource this kind of shit to private interests. At any point, they can just pick up their ball and go home. Now all the money they invested in SpaceX just gets flushed down the drain. The government winds up with nothing to show for it.

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 19 points 1 day ago

The American space program has literally always run this way. NASA decides mission and requirements, private industry sells them rockets they usually then modify and perform their own checks and maintainence on.

The problem is that that system is predicated on having a functioning aerospace industry with multiple competitors you can go to instead of just one company with a viable product thanks the ravages of neoliberalism.

[-] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

Except that NASA is a nationally owned branch of the government. They answer directly to the executive branch and are funded by Congress. They are not a "company". They are a government agency.

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 1 points 18 hours ago

They're saying NASA relies on public companies, not that it is one. SpaceX is not NASA. NASA has increasingly relied on, and funded, SpaceX to complete their missions though.

[-] baronvonj@lemmy.world 40 points 2 days ago

The federal government can just national security/eminent domain take that shit.

[-] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago

Now that would be HILARIOUS

[-] 3abas@lemm.ee 15 points 1 day ago

I've said this a long ago and kept getting downvoted... I'm all for kicking Elon by making fun of the CyberTruck and calling everything be touches shit, but Tesla and SpaceX have some of the smartest engineers in the world and they made a lot of good technology that would be too sad to throw away because a Nazi capitalist owned the companies.

Normalize the idea of nationalizing Tesla and SpaceX, we can actually get there.

[-] SpaceShort@feddit.uk 1 points 1 day ago

And set up a conflict between the bourgeoisie and the Trump administration.

[-] ExtantHuman@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

That's not remotely how contracts work.

[-] figjam@midwest.social 4 points 1 day ago

In the normal world, yes. All bets are off when everyone involved ignores laws and manages by vibes.

[-] ExtantHuman@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

Breaking contract law does not currently seem to be in the oligarchs' interests at this point.

[-] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Well, kind of, but the problem here is Trump saying he will cancel the contracts.

SpaceX would be bound by their contracts, so if they are signed and Trump does not rip them up, then Elon cannot just walk away.

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[-] RedditAdminsSuckIt@lemmy.world 75 points 2 days ago

Gonna need a megathread for this fallout. They are at each other.

-Calls for Impeachment

-Decommissioning contracts

-Naming in Epstein files

-ICE rounding up musk

[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 26 points 2 days ago

You forgot Musk leaking all the snooped data he's collected from all the White House staff traversing his Starlink dish on the White House roof. Anyone know what the over/under for number of christian conservative senior White House officials found actively using Grindr?

[-] SinningStromgald@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago

Why grope an aide when you can Grindr?

[-] grue@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Because Grindr requires consent.

[-] ExtantHuman@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

He didn't threaten this one though. The other four were actual posts by the two idiots

[-] timeghost@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Weird how he imagines Drump gives a fuck about space.

[-] TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org 40 points 2 days ago

Say goodbye to human spaceflight for an entire generation. We made a huge mistake hitching everything onto this fucker's stuff.

I've been waiting for us to leave LEO since I was a kid in the 80s and it now looks like I might be dying without ever having witnessed even a moon landing. I envy my parents.

Unless China or India or Russia pull something off. They're all we have after this.

[-] Gsus4@mander.xyz 23 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Can't the admin simply seize SpaceX, if it is that important to "national security"? If elon complains, deport him and nationalize his stuff on the grounds that he got his citizenship under illegal pretenses (illegal immigrant).

[-] pennomi@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago

They certainly could. I don’t think it’s a terrible idea either - Elon is not stable enough to handle the decision making for national security tech.

[-] No_Eponym@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago

I mean, the current national security advisor doesn't seem stable enough to handle the decision making either. It's unsurprising that E-Mu fit in fine with this administration until recently.

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[-] jacksilver@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago

I think you mean for the west. China has its own rockets and space station and I imagine they aren't stopping just cause SpaceX decided to shoot itself in the foot.

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[-] ExtantHuman@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

China is already testing a starship clone.

We've seen it works. It can be reengineered. Not that they'd be allowed to just ignore their contract like that. They'd forcefully remove the company from him before that happened.

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[-] GuyFawkes@midwest.social 33 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Need Musk to start talking about how he rigged the voting machines…

[-] Linktank@lemmy.today 9 points 2 days ago

He would never put himself in additional danger to help anybody.

[-] Lucky_777@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago

Could just blame Trump. Say he was threatened with helping him or his contracts and family would be killed. I would 100% believe it. Wouldn't even need receipts.

Don't put anything past this admin.

[-] Linktank@lemmy.today 5 points 2 days ago

Right, but then they might actually kill him. I don't see where the confusion is about him not putting his neck on the line.

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[-] resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago

Can't retire if you never worked.

[-] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 20 points 2 days ago

The dragon capsule worked though? You may be thinking of starliner, which is Boeing.

[-] resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago

I'm thinking of Starship.

So Elon's cancelling the thing that works, but not the giant firecracker?

[-] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 18 points 2 days ago

presumably well thought out business decisions arent made spontaneously out of rage from a twitter fight.

[-] Makeitstop@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

While on ketamine.

[-] tburkhol@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago

It's the "You can't fire me! I quit!" response to Trump threatening his NASA contracts.

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[-] pennomi@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

Indeed. And Shotwell will likely remind Elon they can’t do that and stay solvent. It wouldn’t be the first time she’s uncancelled something he’s decided to throw out.

[-] psud@aussie.zone 2 points 1 day ago

I wouldn't be surprised if starlink was enough to keep them solvent

[-] ExtantHuman@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

The thing that works is currently being used by NASA to get astronauts to and from the ISS. The threat was aimed at messing up NASA's current plans after Donald threatened to toss the SpaceX contracts.

There no contract for starship yet. They may have gotten a grant for future development or something. But it's only a potential tool for the Artemis missions in the future

[-] resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Seems like running a national space program that depends on a private company run by a petulant child is a bad idea.

[-] ExtantHuman@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago

NASA has always relied upon contractors to do all the actual construction.

And luckily that permanent child just owns it. They made him step much farther away from running it after his smoking weed live on a podcast.

[-] 9point6@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago

It's bed time in the UK, can someone keep me updated with the shitshow whilst I sleep?

[-] RattlerSix@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago

I just hope they both come out of this knowing that nobody gives a shit about either one of them

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this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2025

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