Nasa and the Pentagon moved quickly this past week to contact alternative spaceflight providers after a public spat between US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk raised new fears about the government’s reliance on SpaceX.The situation escalated when Musk, responding to Trump’s threat to cancel SpaceX contracts, said he would halt flights of the Dragon spacecraft, Nasa’s only current vehicle for sending astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Though Musk later walked back the statement, it sent shockwaves through US space and defense agencies.Following the exchange, Nasa and the Pentagon contacted several commercial companies, including Rocket Lab, Stoke Space, and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, about the readiness of their launch systems, according to The Washington Post.Officials at Sierra Space, developing the Dream Chaser spaceplane, confirmed Nasa had reached out and emphasised the agency’s interest in avoiding reliance on a single provider.Meanwhile, Boeing’s Starliner, originally intended as a backup to Dragon, remains grounded due to technical problems. Officials at Nasa and the Pentagon were alarmed by what they viewed as a sudden and impulsive move, underscoring the vulnerability of depending on a single provider. SpaceX, which holds billions in government contracts, is responsible for ferrying cargo and crew to the ISS and launching some of the military’s most sensitive satellites.One Nasa official described the moment as shifting “from entertaining to terrifying,” while a Pentagon staffer noted, “This is a real issue, not a TV show.” The feud also appeared to be fueled by the administration’s withdrawal of Jared Isaacman’s nomination as Nasa administrator. Isaacman, closely linked to Musk, had previously flown with SpaceX.Nasa has long worked closely with SpaceX, despite previous concerns about Musk’s behavior. But the latest episode prompted renewed debate about whether critical systems like national missile defense and astronaut transport should be entrusted to a company, or person, capable of making such sweeping decisions unilaterally.
