The Trump Mask Battle could have great consequences for our space program

The Trump Mask Battle could have great consequences for our space program

By Lee Billings Edited by Dean Visser

Yesterday, for hours, an explosively escalating social media conflict between Elon Musk, arguably the richest person in the world, and President Donald Trump, the most powerful in the world, has shaken us spaceflight at its centre.

The pair have been a ally ever-covered chest ever since Musk Fateful support Trump last July – events that helped push Trump into his election victory and his second president’s term. However, May 28th Musk announced his departure From his official role, he oversees the US Doge services. And on May 31st, the White House was Rescind Trump’s nomination Musk’s close friend Jared Isaacman will lead NASA. Musk suddenly launched an attack on the Trump administration, criticizing one big, beautiful bill law that breaks the budget, and is currently sailing through Congress.Unpleasant hatred. ”

Things got worse from there as the explosions descended deeper into threats and insults. On June 5th, Trump proposed that he could do it on his own social media platform, True Social Ends the US government contract With Musk companies such as SpaceX and Tesla. Less than an hour later, the conflict suddenly grew more personal and Musk took him to X, the social media platform he owns. Despise Trump– Without evidence – was committed by undecided government documents related to the illegal activities of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

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Musk raised more ante in his follow-up post Supported proposals to fire each Trump And separately, due to the threat of the president, SpaceX was declared in a deleted post, “We will soon begin to abolish the Dragon’s Spaceship.” (About five hours after his decommissioning comment, Tempers apparently had been cooled enough for MUSK to go back to his remarks Another X post: “Okay, we won’t abolish the Dragon.”)

Dragons are an important mainstay in our human spaceflight. It is the main way NASA astronauts come and go with the International Space Station (ISS), a key component of the contract between NASA and SpaceX, and will safely remove the ISS in 2031. In the case of Deorbiting, the ISS basically returns to the drawing. More broadly, NASA has launched many science missions using SpaceX Rockets, and the company has contracted to enter and exit the moon with astronauts as part of the space agency. Artemis III mission.

Trump and Musk’s retaliatory tit against the TAT also increases the chances of confusion that disrupt other SpaceX-centric parts of the US space program. Thanks to the enormous success of the reusable Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy Rockets, the company currently offers space launches for most of the Department of Defense. SpaceX’s more than 7,000 Starlink communication satellites are zodiac signs It’s extremely important to fighter jets in an ongoing conflict between Russia and the US alliance Ukraine. We’ve also signed up to build SpaceX. Large constellations of spy satellites For DOD, he is considered a major candidate for launching a space-based interceptor, which is envisaged as part of Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defense program.

Of the avalanches of reactions to inflammatory sights unfolding in real time, one of the most extremes came from Trump’s influential former adviser Steve Bannon. Grab SpaceX and nationalize it. In an interview with New York Times, Bannon, no evidence, defendant Musk, a naturalized US citizen, is “an illegal alien” who should “be expelled from the country immediately.”

NASA attempted to stay above the fight late in the afternoon with careful language statement From Space Agency spokesman Bethany Stevens: “NASA continues to carry out the President’s vision for the future of space,” writes Stephens. “We will continue to work with industry partners to ensure that our president’s goals in space are met.”

The response from the stock market has been far more restless in its own way. SpaceX is not a publicly available company. But that’s true of Tesla, the electric car company that masks. And at the end of the trading day on June 5th, we experienced a massive sale. Tesla’s stock price fell 14%. Losing The company is messing up its $152 billion market value.

Today, the rumored phone conversation between two men Apparently it was cancelledand Trump has it It is reportedly He is now planning to sell the Tesla he bought in March, which was then a mask support gesture. However, there are some signs that the cleft may still heal. Musk has not yet been deported. SpaceX has not been shut down. Tesla’s stock price has skyrocketed from a huge instantaneous loss. And it appears that NASA astronauts will not be left behind by Earth or the ISS for the time being.

Still, the whole nasty episode and the possibility of further nasty conflicts between Trump and Musk, unfolds in public places, underscores the underlying vulnerability based on the country’s deep dependence on SpaceX for access to space. Outsourcing a massive strip of civil and military space programs to a disruptively innovative private enterprise where one individual effectively controls it certainly has a reward, but there is no shortage of risk either.