Elon Musk Makes Surprising Steps Against Trump, NASA Threatens To Lose Access To ISS

JAKARTA - Elon Musk does not appear to be playing games in his increasingly heated feud with US President Donald Trump. The SpaceX CEO announced that his company will soon stop operating the Dragon capsule, the only US-owned space vehicle that is currently proving safe for transporting astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS).

Musk made the surprise announcement via the X account (formerly Twitter) on the evening of Thursday, June 5, shortly after Trump said he would consider ending the entire US government contract with SpaceX. This decision has the potential to leave NASA without reliable vehicles for a manned space mission, just two months after Dragon managed to save Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore astronauts trapped on the ISS for 286 days due to the failure of the Boeing Starliner capsule.

"In accordance with the President's statement regarding the cancellation of my government contract, @SpaceX will soon begin decommissioning Dragon capsules," Musk wrote in his post.

Four NASA astronauts are currently still on the ISS, and it's unclear whether Musk will allow them to return to Earth using Dragon which is still installed at the station.

NASA actually has a parallel contract with Boeing for the development of the Starliner capsule. However, the project has been hit by many technical problems and is until now deemed unfit to bring humans into space.

Political Feud And Spicy Allegations

Musk's move has escalated the conflict that has been going on in recent weeks between himself and President Trump. Musk previously served as head of the Government's Department of Efficiency (DOGE) under Trump's administration and claims to have saved tens of billions of dollars from federal projects deemed wasteful.

However, Musk left the position after refusing to support the Big Beautiful Bill budget bill which is considered to be increasing the state's debt massively. After that, satire complaints and personal attacks colored social media.

The climax came Thursday afternoon, when Musk accused Trump of being involved in Epstein's file, and called for Trump to be impeached and replaced by Vice President, JD Vance.

In retaliation, Trump stated that Musk had "GILA" and claimed to have asked him to leave the government. He also said he would cut billions and billions of dollars' from the budget by discontinuing the government's partnership with SpaceX and Tesla.

The Fate Of The US Space Project At The Edge Of The Horn

Since 2015, SpaceX has secured a contract worth more than $17 billion from the US government, particularly from NASA and the Department of Defense. Tesla, Musk's electric car company, has also received about $1 billion in incentives and government grants.

If the Dragon capsule decommissioning does happen, NASA will lose the only US-made manned space transportation facility that is proven safe.

The Dragon 2 variant, currently in use, is part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. There is also the Dragon XL project, which was developed for a logistics mission to the Lunar Gateway lunar space post, but has not yet been actively used.

With Musk's decision, the future of the Dragon XL project and the entire space collaboration between SpaceX and the US government are now in very serious uncertainty.