The US President and his formerly favorite South African have had a major falling out. The WH says it may pull all of SpaceX’s contracts, the South African says ‘go ahead’, and he’s decommissioning the Dragon crew vehicle, the US’s only safe method of getting to and from the ISS.
Meanwhile, half of NASA’s efforts are heading for the chop too.
“L’État, c’est moi.” (“I am the state.”) Louis XIV, the ‘Sun King’ said about his absolute monarchy. The problem with having just one person in charge is that everyone suffers when they behave idiotically. Sadly, the once mighty US Space Program looks like being a casualty of that. Surely, this paves the way for China to be the world’s preeminent space power.
Killing NASA kicks the ankles out from under our global efforts. That kinda science and engineering takes a planetary effort and Europe, Japan, etc., can’t just jump in and replace it all.