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Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla's planned space trip on board SpaceX's Crew Dragon has fallen under an unexpected shadow after billionaire business tycoon Elon Musk temporarily announced plans to decommission the Dragon spacecraft, amid a bitter public fallout with US President Donald Trump. The incident triggered worldwide worries about the fate of the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission to the International Space Station (ISS), scheduled for June 8 takeoff, with India's second astronaut and first to ISS, Shukla.

The controversy erupted after Musk, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), said, "In response to the President's comment on cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will initiate decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately."This came just hours after President Trump, reacting to Musk’s criticism of his administration’s flagship spending bill, suggested that billions of dollars in government contracts to the Tesla and SpaceX founder should be “terminated.” "Easiest to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to end Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts," Trump wrote on his social media network, Truth Social.

Dragon Spacecraft Decommissioning Walked Back

The surprise announcement raised alarm worldwide, particularly regarding NASA's dependence on the Dragon capsule, the sole US spacecraft still in operation, able to carry astronauts to the ISS. But hours later, in the face of universal outrage, Musk changed his mind, posting a reply to an X user, "Good advice. Ok, we won't decommission Dragon." He doubled down on patriotism later, posting a picture of the Dragon spacecraft and the US flag with the caption, "Team America."

Even after the dramatic incident, Axiom Space and NASA have made no public announcements about changes to the coming Ax-4 mission. Officials say preparations are going on, and the Crew Dragon capsule is already at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, who has been quarantined according to routine pre-launch procedure, is slated to spend 14 days on the ISS with joint international research. "The Ax-4 mission is right on track, and there has been no order or hint of disruption," a top NASA official stated in a press conference.

Shubhanshu Shukla will be India's second astronaut, after Rakesh Sharma, and the first Indian to fly to the ISS, a historic first for India's expanding space aspirations. The flight is part of a NASA collaboration with Axiom Space, which is slated to carry out private commercial flights to the orbiting space laboratory.

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Trump-Musk Rift Deepens

The battle between Trump and Musk intensified after Musk condemned the President's trade policies and forecasted a recession caused by new tariffs. Trump retaliated by attacking Musk for being hypocritical, saying the billionaire had previously endorsed the same policies and had enjoyed large federal contracts and tax credits. Musk also claimed that Trump would have lost the election if not for his support, having allegedly contributed close to $300 million to the President's re-election campaign.

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The temporary threat to the decommissioning of the Dragon capsule could have had far-reaching effects, not only on the Ax-4 mission but also on NASA's strategic operations, military satellite launches, and future moon missions under the lunar Starship program. Only Russia's Soyuz spacecraft is currently an alternative for bringing astronauts to the ISS, which the US has wanted to decrease through SpaceX.