Elon Musk said Thursday he changed his mind about decommissioning SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft after a user on the social platform X suggested he “cool off and take a step back” amid his public blowout with President Trump.
“Ok we won’t decommission Dragon,” Musk wrote Thursday night in response to the user.
Just hours earlier, Musk said SpaceX, his aerospace company, would ground Dragon, the spacecraft NASA uses to service the International Space Station.
“In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately,” Musk said Thursday afternoon.
Musk’s post included a screenshot of a threat from Trump to eliminate billions of dollars in federal contracts and subsidies the tech billionaire’s companies receive.
But by Thursday night, the blowout appeared to be calming down.
One X user replied to Musk’s afternoon post, “This is a shame this back and forth. You are both better than this. Cool off and take a step back for a couple days.”
Musk replied, “Good advice,” and said he would not decommission Dragon.
Dragon, as described by SpaceX, is the “only spacecraft currently flying that is capable of returning significant amounts of cargo to Earth and is the first private spacecraft to take humans to the space station.”
Musk’s change of mind was a relief for many in the aerospace community, as NASA has become increasingly reliant on SpaceX for space operations.
The decommissioning of Dragon could risk the Trump administration’s ability to bring astronauts and cargo back and forth between the space station and Earth.
NASA press secretary Bethany Stevens said in a post on X that the agency “will continue to execute upon the President’s vision for the future of space. We will continue to work with our industry partners to ensure the President’s objectives in space are met.”
The back-and-forth came amid a broader feud between Musk and Trump. At one point, Musk accused Trump of being listed in the classified files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
