The TWZ Newsletter

Dragon is a family of space capsules that support the International Space Station (ISS), and is currently the only reliable U.S. vehicle for astronauts to make that journey. It is an absolutely critical capability for NASA, especially since relations with the Russians, who also inhabit the station, have plummeted since the invasion of Ukraine.

Overall, it remains to be seen exactly what action President Trump may or may not take, or how Musk might then respond. Any actual tit-for-tat action would be impacted by a host of legal and other factors, as well.

If the Trump administration does move to cancel deals with SpaceX, in particular, it could have serious ramifications for U.S. national security, and especially the U.S. military and intelligence apparatus, which relies very heavily on the firm for space launches and space-based communications services. The company is further known to be working on secretive unique sensing capabilities in space for the U.S. government and has been widely expected to play an important role in Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative. As noted earlier, SpaceX’s Dragon family of spacecraft is also absolutely essential to NASA’s spaceflight operations.

Read much more in-depth analysis here:

https://www.twz.com/space/this-is-how-the-u-s-national-security-apparatus-is-dependent-on-spacex