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?
Is Elon really still the richest man? Because the self professed genius shot himself in the right foot by jumping on the Trump bandwagon despite his Elon Kool-aid drinking Tesla fans being left leaning and very much anti-Trump. This coinciding with other companies catching up to Tesla leading to its stock tanking. Now boy genius picks a fight with the notoriously thin-skinned orange egomaniac which will lead to SpaceX funding in the toilet. Elon has a 44-magnuim pointed at his left foot, good luck with that. Yes Jason I agree there are probably some high 5s in the Boeing boardroom.
If doing all of that and tanking the sales of your company everywhere else in the world doesn’t lower the stock value, nothing matters anymore.
It’s almost like privatizing space travel may not have actually been a great idea. Who could possibly have predicted that?
Anyone who won’t benefit from privatizing space travel.
All of us
When I was flying a lot for work in the early aughts, living in a Seattle suburb, I was on a flight with a Boeing engineer who had the requisite “If it’s not Boeing, I’m not going” sticker on his attaché case. Ironically, we were on an Airbus.
It was a gut punch to Seattle when they moved HQ to Chicago. And then an assembly plant to South Carolina.
The reverse takeover from Boeing purchasing McDonnell Douglas did not go well for Boeing.
No. It did not.
Step 1 – Buy into American politics for the opportunity to root out governmental waste.
Step 2 – Find billions of dollars to ‘cut’, sitting President’s budget spends well past.
Step 3 – Rage quit, talk shit
Step 4 – Profit??
This is a wild take. Teflon seal expansion restricting propellant flow is not a design feature and isn’t “work[ing] as intended”. Just because Starliner made it back to Earth safely this time doesn’t validate the design or diminish the actual risk the crew were in. NASA doesn’t have the luxury of blowing up a dozen rockets to sort out all the design issues in order to certify their spacecraft.
Boeing doesn’t have the engineering bandwidth to accomplish anything anymore since they moved away from Seattle and “saved” money by cutting their older engineers from the workforce. Just look at their latest jet fiasco for and example, doors falling off. Really?!?!
I was particularly impressed by the miscellaneous tools and metal scraps left in the tankers they tried to deliver to the Air Force.
Boeing will go down in the business textbooks as a shining example of how to cost cut yourself out of existence (right next to HP and the their printer ink fiasco, but that’s a different story). Boeing used to be an engineering company that made top-tier aircraft. As I understand it, they turned into a finance company that peddled the cheapest equipment they could muster to complete the sale.
The new CEO setting up shop in Seattle was a step in the right direction, but cleaning up the mess is going to be a very heavy lift.
As far as I’m concerned to only way to fix Boeing is to clean house on an epic level. The entire board needs to go, and several layers of executives also need to be fired too.
Another option is to go the Airbus route of being a government run program. I think there’s enough data to show that America capitalist business practices just don’t work for an airline manufacturer anymore.
Given the “quality” of the various people appointed and confirmed to be members of the cabinet, I think the latter option is a bad idea.
And now, there’s this:
Trump loyalist’s astonishing rise at age 22: From grocery store worker to anti-terrorism chief | Daily Mail Online
Good night and good luck. Indeed.
I am really getting the impression this whole feud is staged. I think Musk cooked this up as a way to get Tesla sales back on track. None of it feels quite right.
When members of the WWE administration get into a school playground fight you really have to consider that possibility.
Linda McMahon is not qualified to be a crosswalk guard, let alone Secretary of Education.
Not being qualified was a big factor in landing her the job. Educated people are an existential threat to Trumpism.
Maybe it’s all an act to lull the Hollywood/pizza restaurant basement pedophile cannibal cult into a false sense of security- has there been any drops on this?
Perhaps we’ll see an “assassination attempt” of Musk, too. Seems to do wonders for one’s popularity. 😉
Best if it was a Tesla that tried to kill him
Full Self Vehicular Homicide?
Please let it be a Cyber(cinder)Truck(block) when it happens
I’ve wondered this as well, but I just can’t see alienating you (hopefully) new customer base to lure back a customer base you’ve already burned to the ground working-out too well.
Maybe I just don’t have the right drug cocktail in my system to make it make sense…
I was thinking that too until Musk started slinging the p-word, which seems to be a genuine insult based on his posting history. Now I’m waiting to see if little Donnie is really going to sell his Tesla, or just launch it off an aircraft carrier.
yea, when he started throwing all of that around, it made it harder to believe as being a planned distraction and more into this really being an actual argument with Trump doing what he always does and Elon being who he always was.
Oh no, my Private Market Efficiency has been ruined by those dastardly narcissistic tendencies of one-man, again! If only we had some sort of reusable low orbit spacecraft system that provided decades of safe travel to and from ISS. If only this entirely avoidable circumstance could be avoid!
But, you know what, Bombardier we need you! It’s time for the Great Quebecois Space Race. A true dark, French speaking horse can solve this. It’s time to raise the Fleurdelisé into orbit. A great day for Quebec, thus a great day for Canda, and therefore, a great day for the world.
While I do love a good Canadian build, here’s a fantastic time for Airbus to make the Spacebus.
Would a Bombardier spacecraft have ashtrays and Pepsi holders ?
And serve poutine
Yes. Covered in maple syrup.
Boeing, as in the McDonnell-Douglas company rebranded as Boeing? The company that made pennies scream they were pinched so hard? Yeah, no. They’re not going to get this right. They’ll get in 98% right then pinch pennies in that last 2%. Then it’ll blow up like any recent Boeing project will.
The other potential winner here is Ludacris and the prop guys from the Fast & Furious franchise. We get them a Fiero, see, and let them do their prop magic, and in no time, boom, we’ve got a spacecraft.
Well, there were those British blokes who built a space shuttle out of a Reliant Robin. That went about as well as about anything Boeing could do… 😉
https://youtu.be/mBVYB5GWOeo?feature=shared
This would only work if Tyrese Gibson was onboard, screaming “I DON’T WANNA DIEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!”
Ah, Jason. The Autopian is my morning bubble of Automotive related sanity. Let’s not tarnish it with this garbage. The comments are already flaring up. I realize one of the two subjects is involved in the automobile industry, but this issue overshadows that tidbit. Can we just go back to talking about taillights or if Ants-on-a-log should be classified as a sandwich?
A smorgasbord, surely?
ants-on-a-log, while fantastic, is no sandwich. It’s in the taco family, because of the U-shape of celery.
An interesting and somewhat controversial take Jason.
Under the Cube Rule classification system I think ants on a log is a fruit salad.
I love this Cube Rule! Thanks for sharing it.
Are tacos just beans and toppings in a corn canyon?
Sierra might stand to gain something. They have to hitch a ride with ULA but they have a vehicle. Boeing has a lot of crow to eat and alot of work to do if they don’t want to end up as just a case study. The real housewives of the Potomac was the most dramatic with the least likeable characters I’m told. So apparently nothing new.
Remember that time when Elon realized he got played? 🙂
Nationalize SpaceX! Then, you know, rename it NASA.
That would be hilarious.
Boeing!? Ah man, I was hoping it was going to be Slate. That somehow this whole shit show could help scuttle the BBB thus keeping around that delightful $7500 tax credit so I can buy a sub-$20K pickup in a year or two.
That’s my hope. We saw multiple times during the last two years that Republicans in Congress are completely incapable of governing. They barely got this bill through as it is and faced challenges in the Senate to the existing bill, which likely would have dragged the whole process out for months already. With Musk coming out so strongly against it and threatening primaries, it just might blow the whole thing up.
We’ve seen that movie and no one comes out ahead unfortunately. Time travel is the only thing that would work, or we all freeze ourselves for a while.
The helium leak was not related to the thruster issues. That seems to have been due to issues with a seal. If you read Berger’s interview with Butch Wilmore about piloting it to the ISS when the thrusters failed, it’s quite scary. There were also other issues that popped up during reentry. So there are a lot of things that need to be straightened out before it flies again, and I believe Boeing has not given any indication about working towards another flight.
There’s also the question of the launcher. It has 6 Atlas Vs earmarked for it, and that’s all it will get. It is compatible with Falcon 9, but that’s obviously not an answer here. It is compatible with Vulcan, but that rocket would need to get human-rated. Vulcan is already badly behind in its launch schedule, and if the government decides to move away from SpaceX that will only get worse. In that environment the time and money required to human-rate it would probably fall far out of scope for ISS transport.
Oof… these comments already.
Is everyone thoroughly angry enough about stuff yet?
Can we all get mad at each other about it?
Yeah baby!
Set your space ponies to racing speed.
We’re making gravy without the lumps now baby!
There’s only 5 years left for the ISS anyways, if the fact that China has their own station and Russia is still launching rockets to the ISS isn’t enough to hurt our National Pride and keep us going then maybe we really aren’t a super power any more.
India also has the first module of their space station scheduled for launch in 2028
Why hasn’t the illegal alien on drugs been exported to El Salvador minute one?
Probably because he’s contributed way more to the GDP than any of us ever will. You may not like the dude (admittedly he is quite the odd duck) but the dude is putting money in the pockets of many people.
There are way worse people to worry about.
BS. He’s a nazi. There are only TWO worse people on the entire planet, vlad the ruzzian and the orange pedophile.
Have you ever been to S. Africa? Are you friends (real friends) with anyone from SA?
Elon is most probably not a nazi, and to throw that term around is an insult to Jewish people all over the globe that have had to deal with the real thing.
That’s basically like me calling you a Drunken Mick without any evidence. I don’t know you, and you don’t know him. Stop feeding the fodder mill.
Dude.. he did a literal nazi salute.
If that was a Nazi salute (hint:it wasn’t) then Novak Djokovic is the most Nazi ever to Nazi when he “salutes” after every win on the court.
Stop looking for things that aren’t there, you’ll lose less hair, lol.
Ah, you’ve been fully brainwashed I see. I hope you have the day you deserve.
Sometimes if it looks like a dog, barks like a dog, and shits on your lawn it is a dog
S. Africa was literally the most racist regime until recently.
That is not even close to correct, as I’m sure our overseas commenters would easily corroborate, but you do you.
The 20 or so of you Jalop washouts are so lame, lol.
You mean the regime so toxic, even Formula 1 and FIFA bailed?
Imagine that. F1 and FIFA.
Okay, name a more racist country than 20th century South Africa
“Okay, name a more racist country than 20th century South Africa”
India.
Apologist BS. He’s an actual nazi who is also bent on destroying american government so that he can make more money. It doesn’t matter if he’s “putting money in the pockets of other people”, he’s a POS and everyone knows it, just like trump. The pathetic part is that uninformed mouth breathers don’t care, and accept the racism, corruption and incompetence.
Riiiiiight. The Nazi Salute wasn’t a Nazi salute. His grandfather didn’t leave Canada so he could be a Nazi in SA. Elon doesn’t support the Neo-Nazi party in Germany. Coincidences, or false accusations, each and every one.
It wasn’t a friggin’ salute more than Walz’s salute when he was “shinnying before a Megan The Three Stallions concert”, and if you think that allowing foreigners to use taxpayer dollars to displace actual taxpayers is ok…yeesh. You’d be pissed too, lol.
Whatever. Cadillacs are cool cars.
I’d suggest doing a little pattern analysis, or looking for confirming/denying data before a conclusion. I’ll accept you believe both Musk and Walz made gestures that could be interpreted in a couple different ways. Does Walz have a grandfather who moved to SA to be a Nazi? Does Walz support the Neo-Nazi party in Germany? Is Walz a white South African illegal immigrant to the US? Are you aware that white South Africans have a bit of a Nazi/racist world view? Do you have other indications that Walz might be a Nazi?
Also, if I am not mistaken, your username is about Jaguar. Fucking Jaguar, the bastion of morality and equality out of Coventry, lol.
Name one.
I think you mean GOP not GDP.
You thought wrong.
He’s actually a US citizen, naturalized in 2002. We’re one of three countries where he holds a passport
Until he gets deported for visa fraud, and lying on his citizenship application. That’s an actual thing. He got accepted to Stanford on a student visa, and then proceeded to go to work without attending a single class, much less a course of study leading to graduation. Steve Bannon is rarely right, but he’s right on Elon being an illegal alien and eligible for deportation.
Let’s deport that anchor baby too. You know, the one whose mother came from Scotland.
Immigrants poison our blood.
These two bloated Real Housewives pissing on each other via their respective social media platforms is stomach-churning. Not even Bravo would put this shit on the air.
You overestimate Bravo.
It’s all very sad for everyone, but especially for the brilliant engineers at SpaceX, many retired from NASA, that have done an incredible job despite the overinflated gas bag. The only surprise was the two gas giants lasted this long.
Yea not happy.
Is it? Is it? Is it possible Bezos played his cards right and pulled out his appendage at the right time?
The same Bezos that got down on both knees, arched his back and loosened his orifices for the president?
Who’s appendage, exactly, did he pull out of himself “at the right time”?
Why are you so fascinated with penises?
He’s fascinated that Bezos built a CockRocket space program
Boeing is incompetent, the only realistic option is paying Russia again
Which, if you’re conspiratorial…
There is also China and India.
I don’t know that their capsules are compatible with the ISS, India is apparently planning to be in the future, China is not interested
And we had a prior relationship with Russia, between the decommissioning of the Space Shuttle and the entry into service of the Crew Dragon, which overlapped several years with Russia occupying Crimea and parts of Luhansk and Donetsk, so obviously invading Ukraine wasn’t a deal breaker for us in the mid 2010s, don’t see why it would be in the mid 2020s, and we’re still working with them on the ISS right now anyway
China’s basically the Bender B. Rodriguez of space. They built their own space station with blackjack and hookers.
China is kind of that with everything
Come on now, I’m sure Boeing has fixed all the outstanding issues with their DeathRaft!
There’s nothing like a clash of 2 giant egos and 2 tiny d*cks
When elephants fight, it’s the grass that gets trampled.
Your first thought was their penis sizes? That’s quite the imagination you got there, lol
My thoughts went to their hands, but I generally work with what I can see.
That’s still really fucking weird.
Well, Trump’s hands do appear to be at least 4 inches flaccid
Ketamine vs Amphetamine
Fight!
I just saw a meme yesterday with the scene from No Country for Old Men that said
“Tariff Man or Ketamine Guy, you have to call it.”