politics @lemmy.world MicroWave @lemmy.world 1mo ago

Musk says SpaceX will retire Dragon spacecraft amid bitter Trump dispute

www.theguardian.com Musk backs down on threat to retire SpaceX Dragon spacecraft amid 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.

63 comments

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 federal government can just national security/eminent domain take that shit.
  
  Now that would be HILARIOUS
  
  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.
  
  And set up a conflict between the bourgeoisie and the Trump administration.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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
- 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?
  
  Why grope an aide when you can Grindr?
  
  He didn't threaten this one though. The other four were actual posts by the two idiots
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.
- 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).
  
  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.
  
  I find that less likely than an investor and board of directors revolt at SpaceX.
- 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.
  
  I think you mean for America. Europe has its own programs and they’re only ramping them up.
- China is killing it honestly. My money is actually on them for next boots on the moon.
  
  Shades of The Martian are coming to mind for me.
- 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.
- Ironic that the man convinced he was going to take humanity to Mars just set back humanity's interplanetary expansion by a generation.
  
  Maybe what we've lost with this mistake will balance out by teaching us that autocrats/oligarchs don't serve us but it's hard to imagine it at this point.
Need Musk to start talking about how he rigged the voting machines…
- He would never put himself in additional danger to help anybody.
  
  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.
  
  But would he put himself in additional danger for the lols? Or because drugs? Or raging narcisism? Let's be real, E-Mu is confused. Could totally hurt himself in his confusion.
Can't retire if you never worked.
- The dragon capsule worked though? You may be thinking of starliner, which is Boeing.
  
  I'm thinking of Starship.
  
  So Elon's cancelling the thing that works, but not the giant firecracker?
It's bed time in the UK, can someone keep me updated with the shitshow whilst I sleep?
I just hope they both come out of this knowing that nobody gives a shit about either one of them
Weird how he imagines Drump gives a fuck about space.

63 comments