Musk says SpaceX will retire Dragon spacecraft amid bitter Trump dispute
Musk says SpaceX will retire Dragon spacecraft amid bitter Trump dispute
World’s richest person says craft, which Nasa relies on to take astronauts to ISS, won’t be decommissioned after pleas from X users
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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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.
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.
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.
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.
The federal government can just national security/eminent domain take that shit.
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.
Now that would be HILARIOUS
And set up a conflict between the bourgeoisie and the Trump administration.
That's not remotely how contracts work.
In the normal world, yes. All bets are off when everyone involved ignores laws and manages by vibes.
Breaking contract law does not currently seem to be in the oligarchs' interests at this point.
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.
Uh no they can't if the US government doesn't let them.
What are the courts going to stop them from seizing the equipment.
SpaceX is a privately owned company. I'm absolutely certain the US government doesn't own any of their intellectual property. If they chose to, they could move the entire operation to any other country, and US courts could probably do nothing to prevent it.
The SCOTUS is useless as it's in the back pocket of the Donvict, and it's America we are talking about, you know they like to replace entire governments, if they don't want the tech leaving it just will not be allowed.
All the Cheeto in charge has to do is say national security risk or Elons now a terrorist blah blah blah, the most powerful nation on earth will do whatever it feels like to protect itself.
Except that it is still America, and the government seizing private property...especially from a billionaire...is straight up "socialism" as far as most Americans are concerned. I have a feeling that might not go over as easily as people think.
I'd just like to note, Elon doesn't have majority stake in SpaceX any more. He only owns 42% as of last year. I doubt the other investors will be so keen to burn all these bridges, but I guess we'll see.
Not so sure. Stuff like ITAR exists to prevent exactly that. The us could also declare SpaceX to be some kind of national security interest.