Denial of the Crew Dragon of SpaceX, threats to Artemis? NASA trembles the quarrel between Musk and Trump
Illustration of the quarrel between Donald Trump and Musk with its consequences in the space field. © Illustration generated on Grok by Brice Haziza
Common sense made many say that the Donald Trump/Elon Musk hitch would one day steal in the most violent way possible. Such ego had little chance of getting along in the long term. But no one had seen such a degree of intensity coming so quickly affected.
Beyond the purely political reasons of the blurring between the two men, reasons that we will not mention here, we can quickly retrace the thread of events related to space:
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On May 31, Donald Trump announced that he no longer wants the appointment of Jared Isaacman at the head of NASA and that he wishes “someone more in line with their goals ”. The businessman and philantropic, commander of the Polaris missions of SpaceX, was too close to Musk and wanted NASA to continue to invest in the missions of space exploration and in telescopes. Donald Trump wants to reduce the wing of the American space agency by at least 25%.
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On the evening of June 5, Musk and Trump have been expanded in publications on X and Truth Social. After criticism from Elon Musk, Donal Trump reacted by affirming on his social network that “The government can save money by canceling contracts with SpaceX”. To which the SpaceX boss replied “In the light of these elements, SpaceX will begin the demented of the Crew Dragon immediately”.
Musk threatens to deny the Crew Dragon vessel. © X screenshot of X
How would the demember of Crew Dragon be a big problem for the United States?
The Crew Dragon stowed at the ISS. © NASA
The threat of Elon Musk will not be without consequences because the Crew Dragon is currently necessary for the NASA space program.
It is the only American ship capable of transporting astronauts, and freight, in the International Space Station (ISS). Without him, NASA will have to work with Roscosmos, the Russian agency.
It would therefore be a loss of sovereignty, not to mention the geopolitical conditions in which it should happen. The only alternative would be the capsule Starliner who is far from operational. The very functioning of the ISS is therefore called into question: its decline planned in 2030, and entrusted to SpaceX, could thus intervene earlier …
And Artemis and the lunar program, and March?
The Artemis program in danger? © NASA
SPACEX government contracts are very numerous, NASA having many partnerships with SpaceX, especially for the Artemis program.
Recall that it is the HLS model starship that must deposit astronauts on the moon around 2027 (officially).
In reality, no one really believed on this date too close to a vessel that is still in the test phase, but with these last developments, it is likely that Hartemis III is still very late.
As for the Martian program, then there …
The big losers of this situation are therefore SpaceX and NASA, the latter truly crossing The deepest crisis in its history.
We had promised that we would not speak political, but two comments seems necessary to me: China must rub its hands, it which is clearly in a race towards the Moon and Mars with the United States as the USSR like the USSR in the 60s. And another, more sarcastic: Elon Musk is undoubtedly lucky not to be Russian, precisely …
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