In recent days, Donald J. Trump and Elon Musk’s posts on social media platforms have attracted attention. At Spacelogistics, we wanted to highlight the possible impact of this situation on future space research, missions, and travel.
Following the dispute between Trump and Elon, Elon’s nomination of Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator was withdrawn. Additionally, Trump threatened to cancel the billion-dollar federal contracts awarded to SpaceX in one of his posts.
SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, has revolutionized access to space with its reusable rocket technology. While the price per kilogram at launch was around $50,000 in the past, today it has dropped to around $2,000. SpaceX’s fleet of spacecraft provides cost-effective solutions for orbital transportation, Moon, Mars, and deep space activities. SpaceX is actively preferred for orbital transportation, cargo and human transportation to the ISS.
In fact, on June 5, 2024, Boeing’s first crewed flight to the ISS with the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft returned without a crew due to a technical error. NASA astronauts stranded on the ISS for approximately nine months were able to return to Earth using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft.
SpaceX’s activities, which play a significant role in orbital, space transportation, and tourism activities, may be negatively affected by the dispute between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. If the private space sector, which is not supported by NASA and the US government, cannot find a profitable area of activity or increase its revenues, its growth will be threatened. Additionally, institutions and organizations that do not want to provoke Trump’s reaction are likely to evaluate alternative launch options for orbital transportation processes.
Author: Yavuz Toraman
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