Self-proclaimed "First Buddy" Elon Musk gestures while discussing the sixth Starship test launch with President-elect Donald Trump at Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas. To the right of Trump is Gen. Chance Saltzman, Chief of space operations for the U.S. Space Force.
Elon Musk gestures while discussing the sixth Starship test launch with President-elect Donald Trump at Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas. To the right of Trump is Gen. Chance Saltzman, Chief of space operations for the U.S. Space Force. Credit: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

The world recently watched an argument unfold on X between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. It was a surreal exchange, featuring one of the richest men ever to have lived threatening to pull his spacecraft from NASA over a political disagreement. Some onlookers will have enjoyed it. For others, it will have been little more than background noise. But it pointed to something that’s worth taking seriously: one person can pull the plug on America’s entire crewed spaceflight program.

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Robert Brüll, is the CEO of FibreCoat, which manufactures super-resistant, radiation-shielding materials with applications in the space and defence industries.