The Trump-Elon Feud Is Threatening The U.S. Space Program, But There Could Be One Unexpected Winner

If you’re like most Americans right now, you likely are chewing a generous mouthful of popcorn as you watch, with lurid fascination, as the wealthiest man in the world is having an extremely public fight with the President of the United States. I suspect that most of us could kind of see this coming, as the egos of both Elon Musk and Donald Trump are both large enough that they have their own powerful gravitational pulls, and if you’ve ever seen pictures of two galaxies slowly destroying one another, you know that two things with lots of gravity can do plenty of damage to each other.

I used that space analogy because some of the collateral damage from this largely inane brawl could be NASA and America’s space program, especially the astronauts who are both currently on and scheduled to go to the International Space Station (ISS). The reason this ridiculous spat reaches all the way into space is that one of Elon Musk’s companies, SpaceX, currently has the contract with NASA to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS. SpaceX’s crewed orbital capsule, Dragon, is currently the only method NASA regularly uses to get astronauts on and off the station, since NASA no longer buys seats on Russia’s old workhorse Soyuz spacecraft.

This fight now puts the travel plans for American astronauts in jeopardy, because Trump threatened to terminate Musk’s “Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” and Elon retaliated by saying this:

In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately pic.twitter.com/NG9sijjkgW

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025

So, he’s threatening to decommission the Dragon spacecraft “immediately,” which he is well aware are the only current options for getting astronauts to and from the ISS. The current crew could use the Dragon currently docked at the station to return to Earth, though it’s not clear if a cancellation of SpaceX’s contracts would prevent the company from handling the capsule recovery upon splashdown, which could be a problem, since most of the responsibilities of recovery are in the hands of SpaceX.

Elon does seem to be aware of the problems this could cause, and appears to be quite defiant about it:

This just gets better and better ????????

Go ahead, make my day … https://t.co/APmy7cV8iL

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025

So, overall, if you’re an astronaut, this is not great. It’s even possibly very dangerous. But! There is a bit of hope here, from a somewhat unlikely source. You see, even if SpaceX’s Dragon capsule is out of the picture, and even if there’s no way NASA astronauts can get rides on a Soyuz, there is one possible other option:

Boeing’s Starliner.

Yes, the Starliner! Sure, it was kind of a colossal shitshow when it launched almost exactly a year ago, where it successfully docked with the ISS, bringing two astronauts, but a helium leak in the spacecraft’s reaction control system caused a months-long extension of the mission so Boeing engineers could study the problem. The popular narrative of the time was that the two astronauts who flew the Starliner to the station were “stranded,” which was a gross exaggeration and not even close to being accurate, but that didn’t stop headlines like these from cropping up everywhere:

Boeing, whose reputation had already been significantly tarnished from issues with their 737 Max airliners and other issues, suffered even more indignities when their test pilot astronauts ended up returning to Earth in a SpaceX Dragon. But here’s the thing: when Boeing finally did return the Starliner to Earth, uncrewed, it landed just fine! If there had been astronauts in there, they’d have walked out unharmed. Despite all the worry and panicky news articles and hype, the capsule actually worked as intended.

That’s not to say the helium leak wasn’t a problem – of course it was – but it proved to be a manageable problem and one that I would think could be corrected. So, at this very strange moment in time, there sits an opportunity for Boeing, a shot at redemption, if they’re bold enough to reach out and grab it.

I’m sure Boeing engineers have been working to solve Starliner’s issues, and with a successful launch and return under their belts, I’d suspect that they do, in fact, have a crewed vehicle capable of getting crews to and from the ISS. Now, while Trump and Musk are bickering back and forth and SpaceX may actually lose their NASA contracts, is the time for Boeing to strike, offering to provide all the Starliner flights NASA needs to keep the ISS crewed and functioning.

Boeing needs a win, badly. Maybe all of this idiocy going on between these two thin-skinned and petulant Big Men is just the chance that Boeing has been waiting for.

I mean, after all, someone has to come out ahead in all this idiocy, right?