The company’s Starship vehicle is expected to carry NASA astronauts to the moon.

SpaceX, one of NASA’s biggest partners, could lose billions of dollars worth of government contracts if the Trump administration decides to terminate the agreements with the Elon Musk-headed company.

Concerns about the contracts, one of SpaceX’s most important revenue sources, intensified following a dramatic fallout between Trump and Musk, who even called for the Republican President’s impeachment.  

The war of words between the U.S. President and the South Africa-born billionaire stemmed from Musk’s public rebuke of Trump’s signature tax bill, which would further raise the U.S. federal debt.

On Thursday, Trump fired back at Musk and threatened to scrap government contracts and subsidies to Musk’s companies.

As a response, Musk said SpaceX would begin decommissioning the Dragon spacecraft, the only reliable U.S. vehicle for NASA to send astronauts to the International Space Station.

However, in a sign of thaw, Musk walked back on his earlier comments later. Replying to a user who asked the two of them to "cool off and take a step back for a couple of days," Musk said, "Good advice. Ok, we won't decommission Dragon."

The only other viable alternative to Dragon is Boeing’s Starliner, which is still grappling with issues that left NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore stranded inside the space station for nine months.

SpaceX received $3.6 billion from the federal government in the 2024 fiscal year alone.

SpaceX is also expected to carry NASA astronauts to the moon in its giant Starship launch vehicle, under the Artemis program. Musk’s ultimate goal is to build a human colony on Mars, which Trump has backed previously.

The most recent test flight of Starship failed to achieve key objectives and crashed into the Indian Ocean.

Besides NASA contracts, SpaceX provides launch services to private companies and other space agencies, as well as launches the satellites of internet provider Starlink, another Musk venture.

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits surrounding SpaceX was in bearish territory, with high chatter.

“We will continue to work with our industry partners to ensure the President’s objectives in space are met,” a NASA spokesperson said on X.

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