As President Donald Trump and Elon Musk discussed on social media on Thursday, the world’s wealthiest man threatened to abolish the space capsules used to bring astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station.
After Trump threatened to cut down government contracts given to Musk’s SpaceX Rocket Company and his Starlink Internet Satellite Services, Musk responded via X that SpaceX “will soon begin to abolish the abolition of the Dragon Spaceship.”
It is unclear how serious the mask threat is. However, capsules developed with the help of government contracts are an important part of keeping the space station up and running. NASA also relies heavily on SpaceX, including launching a science mission, and reverting astronauts to the moon in the next decade.
Dragon Capsule
SpaceX is the only US company currently transporting crews to the space station using four-person dragon capsules.
Boeing’s Starliner capsule was flew by astronauts only once. Test flights went badly last year, and the two NASA astronauts had to return to Earth via SpaceX in March, more than nine months after its launch in June last year.
Starliner remains grounded as NASA decides whether to go on another test flight with cargo, not with crew.
SpaceX also uses Dragon Capsules for its own, personalized missions. The next one is scheduled to fly next week on a trip chartered by Houston company Axiom Space.
The cargo version of the Dragon Capsule is also used to ferry food and other supplies to orbital labs.
Other NASA options: Russia
The Russian Soyuz capsule is now the only way to take crews to the space station.
Soyuz capsules carry three people at once. For now, each Soyuz launch includes two Russians and one NASA astronaut, and each SpaceX launch features one Russian under a barter system. That way, someone from the US and Russian will always be on board because the capsule needs to be returned in an emergency.
NASA’s first crew was launched in 2020 – first orbital flights of crews by private companies – SpaceX now allows NASA to reduce its dependence on Russia on its crew transport. For years, flights in Russia cost tens of millions of dollars per seat.
NASA also uses Russian spacecraft for cargo, along with US contractor Northlap Grumman.
SpaceX’s other government launches
The company has used rockets to launch several science missions in NASA and military equipment.
Last year, SpaceX also won a NASA contract, helping to pull the space station out of orbit when it became unavailable.
SpaceX’s Starship Mega Rocket is the one NASA chose to guide astronauts from lunar orbit to the moon surface at least for the first two landing missions. Starship did its ninth test flight from Texas last week, but it went out of control and broke.
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Original issue: June 5th, 2025, 6:30pm EDT
