Representatives of NASA and the Pentagon are looking for a replacement for SpaceX's rockets and ships for delivering astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station (ISS), as well as for launching military satellites into orbit, The Washington Post reports, citing its own sources.
According to them, after the public dispute between US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, representatives of NASA and the Pentagon have turned to Musk's SpaceX competitors with a call to quickly develop alternative launch vehicles and ships. Since 2020, SpaceX has been delivering crews to the ISS on its Crew Dragon ships under contract with the US space agency; they are used as part of the program of cross-flights between Roscosmos and NASA. The Pentagon, the newspaper emphasizes, also “depends heavily on the company SpaceX to launch its top-secret satellites into orbit“.
As the publication reports, in recent days, representatives of the two agencies have contacted at least three American companies involved in space development, including Rocket Lab, Stoke Space and Blue Origin, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. In addition, on Thursday there was a meeting between representatives of NASA and the private space company Sierra Space. “NASA and the Pentagon's concerns are compounded by the fact that SpaceX's competitors are lagging behind, making its lead unconditional and leaving the government with no other options“, the publication summarizes.
Trump's termination of SpaceX contracts would lead to dependence on Russia in space, Newsweek writes, citing a letter from Clayton Swope, deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Termination of work with SpaceX would leave a huge gap that cannot be filled by other options available today“, the letter says.
He noted that the greatest damage would be done to space launches and servicing of the ISS. NASA will once again have to turn to Russia to get to the space station and back.
After the conflict with Musk, Trump said that the US government would review government contracts concluded with companies owned by the businessman. Earlier, The New York Times reported that Musk's companies received about $ 3 billion in 2024 under 100 contracts with 17 government agencies.