NASA and the Pentagon this week amid Elon Musk’s public feud with President Donald Trump urged SpaceX alternatives to more quickly develop alternative rockets and spacecraft, reports the Washington Post.
Three companies have been contacted by government officials, according to the Post, including Rocket Lab, Stoke Space and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin.
The report comes a day after Musk said SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft “immediately” because of threats by Trump to cancel government contracts with Musk’s business.
Hours later, he recanted the statement.
Dragon is the only U.S. option for delivering crew to and from the International Space Station. Musk and Trump’s spat has highlighted the U.S. governments heavy dependence on a single company for missions.
One NASA official called Musk’s threat to decommission Dragon “terrifying.”
At the Pentagon, a person said staffers “looked at each other and said, ‘oh, it’s not funny anymore.’ There was a realization that we’re not watching TV. This is a real issue.”
SpaceX, one of the biggest federal contractors, has received more than $20 billion in contracts from NASA.
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