Desk:Elon Musk’s rocket firm SpaceX will start decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft instantly, the billionaire stated on Thursday in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s assertion that the federal government ought to cancel Musk’s federal contracts.
NASA depends on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the Worldwide Area Station beneath a contract price roughly $4.9 billion. The capsule is the one U.S. spacecraft able to flying people in orbit.
Musk’s assertion marks a dramatic escalation in an intensifying combat with Trump that burst into public view this week, when Musk opposed the Trump administration’s linchpin spending invoice.
Taking Dragon out of service would disrupt the ISS program, which includes dozens of nations beneath a world settlement signed over 20 years in the past. Russia’s Soyuz system is the one different crewed spacecraft that sends astronauts to the ISS.