Musk backs down on threat to retire SpaceX Dragon spacecraft amid Trump dispute
www.theguardian.com
World’s richest person says craft, which Nasa relies on to take astronauts to ISS, won’t be decommissioned after pleas from X users

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, on Thursday said his company SpaceX would begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft after he engaged in an extraordinary public fallout with Donald Trump who had threatened to cancel government contracts with Musk’s businesses.

“In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately,” Musk posted on the social media platform X, which he owns.

A few minutes earlier Trump had posted on Truth Social – the media platform that he owns – that he might cancel huge lucrative contracts with Musk’s businesses, which include the SpaceX company that is building a fleet of rockets.

  • Archangel1313@lemmy.ca
    42·
    1 day ago

    SpaceX operates a fleet of privately owned ICBMs under license from the US government.

    That’s not true. All nuclear weapons in the UW’s arsenal are under the control of the US military. You are correct to say that it would be illegal for any private contractor to operate its own fleet of ICBMs…and that includes SpeceX.

    The intellectual property they are using is subject to ITAR regulation. Any American trying to transfer that IP outside of the US would be quickly indicted. Any foreign government using or authorizing the use of that IP would be heavily sanctioned.

    ITAR doesn’t prevent SpaceX from moving its base of operations to another country. As I said, they are a privately owned company. Moving their operations to another country is not the same thing as “giving” that technology to that country.

    • Rivalarrival@lemmy.todayEnglish
      7·
      1 day ago

      That’s not true. All nuclear weapons

      Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. ICBM. You’ll note that there is no “N” in that initialism. The presence or absence of a nuclear weapon is irrelevant. The missile itself is what I am talking about.

      The missile, and all of the essential technology for building and operating it, are subject to export controls. ITAR and EAR, which apply not only to the physical items, but to the IP associated with those items as well.

      ITAR doesn’t prevent SpaceX from moving its base of operations to another country.

      ITAR allows SpaceX to take the name of the company to another country, and that’s about it.

      Not the hardware, software, IP, or anything they would need to actually conduct their operations from that country.

      StarLink could (probably) be moved out of the US, and rely on foreign launchers to maintain their satellite constellations. But not SpaceX, unless the US government specifically permits them to do so. Which they won’t.

    • evidences@lemmy.world
      71·
      1 day ago

      SpaceX operates a fleet of privately owned ICBMs under license from the US government.

      That’s not true. All nuclear weapons in the US’s arsenal are under the control of the US military. You are correct to say that it would be illegal for any private contractor to operate its own fleet of ICBMs…and that includes SpeceX.

      Nah man space rockets are just ICBMs with a human payload instead of an explosive one.