Elon Musk has reversed course on his earlier threat to decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, backing down after public pushback and a call for de-escalation.
Replying Thursday to a user on X who urged both Musk and President Donald Trump to “cool off and take a step back for a couple days,” Musk responded: “Good advice. Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon.”
The billionaire's earlier announcement that SpaceX would immediately begin decommissioning the spacecraft came in response to Trump suggesting on Truth Social that he might cancel US government contracts with Musk’s companies.
Musk posted to X Thursday that he was going to decommission the Dragon spacecraft “immediately” following Trump’s post to Truth that he would look into terminating US government contracts with Musk’s Space X.
Without the Dragon, NASA would have been left without a proven spacecraft capable of sending and retrieving astronauts from the ISS. The Dragon spacecraft was the same vessel that was used to rescue astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who were stuck aboard the ISS for 286 days.
NASA were in contact with Boeing, according to the Daily Mail, who are working to fix their Starliner craft, but the project is not considered to be safe for human travel at this time.
“In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately,” Musk tweeted on Thursday.
The post came after several jabs from Musk toward Trump regarding the Republica-led "Big Beautiful Bill," which Musk has complained will increase the deficit and not provide necessary cuts to government spending.
DOGE under Musk had aimed to push savings into the trillions.
After stepping down, Musk kicked off a heated public clash with Trump, trading barbs on social media. The dispute escalated Thursday when Musk accused the president of being "in the Epstein files," a charge that further intensified their feud.
Musk didn’t stop there. He also called for Trump to be impeached and replaced by Vice President JD Vance, who is 40 years old. The recommendation came as part of a series of posts sharply critical of Trump’s handling of the budget bill and what Musk described as a betrayal of fiscal responsibility.
Since 2015, SpaceX has secured more than $17 billion in federal contracts, primarily from NASA and the Department of Defense, according to ABC News. Tesla, meanwhile, has received an estimated $1 billion in government support as of February.
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft—created under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program—is designed for missions to the International Space Station. The system includes a reusable capsule for crew transport and an expendable trunk module, both launched aboard the Falcon 9 rocket.
