Trump vs Musk: Nasa, Pentagon rattled by ISS threat- officials warn space program caught in feud

Nasa and the Pentagon moved rapidly this past week to interaction alternate spaceflight providers aft a nationalist spat betwixt US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk raised caller fears astir the government’s reliance connected SpaceX.The concern escalated erstwhile Musk, responding to Trump’s menace to cancel SpaceX contracts, said helium would halt flights of the Dragon spacecraft, Nasa’s lone existent conveyance for sending astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Though Musk aboriginal walked backmost the statement, it sent shockwaves done US abstraction and defence agencies.Following the exchange, Nasa and the Pentagon contacted respective commercialized companies, including Rocket Lab, Stoke Space, and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, astir the readiness of their motorboat systems, according to The Washington Post.Officials astatine Sierra Space, processing the Dream Chaser spaceplane, confirmed Nasa had reached retired and emphasised the agency’s involvement successful avoiding reliance connected a azygous provider.Meanwhile, Boeing’s Starliner, primitively intended arsenic a backup to Dragon, remains grounded owed to method problems. Officials astatine Nasa and the Pentagon were alarmed by what they viewed arsenic a abrupt and impulsive move, underscoring the vulnerability of depending connected a azygous provider.

SpaceX, which holds billions successful authorities contracts, is liable for ferrying cargo and unit to the ISS and launching immoderate of the military’s astir delicate satellites.One Nasa authoritative described the infinitesimal arsenic shifting “from entertaining to terrifying,” portion a Pentagon staffer noted, “This is simply a existent issue, not a TV show.” The feud besides appeared to beryllium fueled by the administration’s withdrawal of Jared Isaacman’s information arsenic Nasa administrator.

Isaacman, intimately linked to Musk, had antecedently flown with SpaceX.Nasa has agelong worked intimately with SpaceX, contempt erstwhile concerns astir Musk’s behavior. But the latest occurrence prompted renewed statement astir whether captious systems similar nationalist rocket defence and astronaut transport should beryllium entrusted to a company, oregon person, susceptible of making specified sweeping decisions unilaterally.