The U.S. government relies on SpaceX to support NASA and other agencies, and the company has received more $20 billion in federal contracts for it. As Musk and Trump threaten to cut ties, here’s what that would mean for the U.

In the heat of the moment, Elon Musk threatened to decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and then he took it back. In doing so, however, the rocket billionaire dragged NASA into his messy breakup with Donald Trump, with the agency’s access to orbit now at stake.

Elon Musk's threat, which he later retracted, to cut off NASA's use of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft would be a huge blow to NASA, depriving the space agency of the only American vehicle capable of transporting astronauts to International Space Station.