Elon Musk
SpaceX to decommission Dragon spacecraft in response to Pres. Trump war of words with Elon Musk
Elon Musk says SpaceX will decommission Dragon as a result of President Trump’s threat to end his subsidies and government contracts.

SpaceX will decommission its Dragon spacecraft in response to the intense war of words that President Trump and CEO Elon Musk have entered on various social media platforms today.
President Trump and Musk, who was once considered a right-hand man to Trump, have entered a vicious war of words on Thursday. The issues stem from Musk’s disagreement with the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which will increase the U.S. federal deficit, the Tesla and SpaceX frontman says.
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The insults and threats have been brutal, as Trump has said he doesn’t know if he’ll respect Musk again, and Musk has even stated that the President would not have won the election in November if it were not for him.
President Trump then said later in the day that:
“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Government Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”
Musk’s response was simple: he will decommission the SpaceX capsule responsible for transporting crew and cargo to the International Space Station (ISS): Dragon.
🚨 Elon says Dragon will be decommissioned immediately due to President Trump’s threats to terminate SpaceX’s government contracts https://t.co/XNB0LflZIy
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 5, 2025
Dragon has completed 51 missions, 46 of which have been to the ISS. It is capable of carrying up to 7 passengers to and from Earth’s orbit. It is the only spacecraft that is capable of returning vast amounts of cargo to Earth. It is also the first private spacecraft to take humans to the ISS.
The most notable mission Dragon completed is one of its most recent, as SpaceX brought NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back to Earth after being stranded at the ISS by a Boeing Starliner capsule.
SpaceX’s reluctance to participate in federally funded projects may put the government in a strange position. It will look to bring Boeing back in to take a majority of these projects, but there might be some reluctance based on the Starliner mishap with Wilmore and Williams.
SpaceX bails out Boeing and employees are reportedly ‘humiliated’
Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship Flight 10 was so successful, it’s breaking the anti-Musk narrative
That’s all the proof one could need about the undeniable success of Starship Flight 10.

Starship Flight 10 was a huge success for SpaceX. When both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship Upper Stage successfully landed on their designated splashdown zones, the space community was celebrating.
The largest and most powerful rocket in the world had successfully completed its tenth test flight. And this time around, there were no rapid unscheduled disassemblies during the mission.
As per SpaceX in a statement following Flight 10, “every major objective was met, providing critical data to inform designs of the next generation Starship and Super Heavy.” The private space enterprise also stated that Flight 10 provided valuable data by stressing the limits of Starship’s capabilities.
With all of Flight 10’s mission objectives met, one would think that it would be pretty easy to cover the story of Starship’s successful tenth test flight. But that’s where one would be wrong, because Elon Musk companies, whether it be Tesla or SpaceX or xAI, tend to attract negative slant from mainstream media outlets.
This was in full force with Starship Flight 10’s coverage. Take the BBC’s Facebook post about the fight test, which read “Elon Musk’s giant rocket, earmarked for use in a 2027 mission to the Moon, has had multiple catastrophic failures in previous launches.” CNN was more direct with its slant, writing “SpaceX’s troubled Starship prototype pulls off successful flight after months of explosive mishaps” on its headline.
While some media outlets evidently adopted a negative slant towards Starship’s Flight 10 results, several other media sources actually published surprisingly positive articles about the successful test flight. The most notable of which is arguably the New York Times, which featured a headline that read “SpaceX’s Giant Mars Rocket Completes Nearly Flawless Test Flight.” Fox News also ran with a notably positive headline that read “SpaceX succeeds at third Starship test flight attempt after multiple scrubs.”
Having covered Elon Musk-related companies for the better part of a decade now, I have learned that mainstream coverage of any of his companies tends to be sprinkled with varying degrees of negative slant. The reasons behind this may never be fully explained, but it is just the way things are. This is why, when milestones such as Starship’s Flight 10 actually happen and mainstream media coverage becomes somewhat objective, I can’t help but be amazed.
After all, it takes one heck of a company led by one heck of a leader to force objectivity on an entity that has proven subjective over the years. And that, if any, is all the proof one could need about the undeniable success of Starship Flight 10.
Elon Musk
Tesla’s Elon Musk takes another shot at Waymo’s capabilities stemming from LiDAR
“LiDAR also does not work well in snow, rain or dust due to reflection scatter. That’s why Waymos stop working in any heavy precipitation.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has frequently expressed his opinions on LiDAR in the past, but in recent days, the EV maker’s frontman has continued to discuss the weaknesses in the technology and why his company has relied on cameras.
He also mentioned the suite’s limits on Waymo’s capabilities.
Tesla completely abandoned using radar alongside its camera suite a few years ago, something it referred to as “Tesla Vision” at the time. For its vehicles, it has only used cameras since this transition, and Musk has never once shied away from this strategy.
Earlier this week, he discussed the reliance of LiDAR and radar by other companies:
“Lidar and radar reduce safety due to sensor contention. If lidars/radars disagree with cameras, which one wins?
This sensor ambiguity causes increased, not decreased, risk. That’s why Waymos can’t drive on highways.
We turned off radars in Teslas to increase safety. Cameras ftw.”
Elon Musk argues lidar and radar make self driving cars more dangerous
He continued with this narrative again and mentioned Waymo specifically on a second occasion.
Musk’s focus this time was on Waymo vehicles and their capabilities in adverse weather, specifically snow, rain, or even dust storms, and how LiDAR struggles to navigate in these conditions.
He said:
“LiDAR also does not work well in snow, rain or dust due to reflection scatter. That’s why Waymos stop working in any heavy precipitation. As I have said many times, there is a role for LiDAR in some circumstances and I personally oversaw the development of LiDAR for the SpaceX Dragon docking with Space Station. I am well aware of its strengths and weaknesses.”
LiDAR also does not work well in snow, rain or dust due to reflection scatter. That’s why Waymos stop working in any heavy precipitation.
As I have said many times, there is a role for LiDAR in some circumstances and I personally oversaw the development of LiDAR for the SpaceX…— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 26, 2025
Tesla’s approach is significantly different than most companies. Waymo, Motional, Aurora, and Zoox all use LiDAR for their self-driving programs, while Tesla continues to rely on its camera-only approach.
Musk even said that Model S and Model X utilized a Tesla-developed high-resolution radar, but it could not “compare to passive optical (cameras), so we turned it off.”
Tesla developed high resolution radar and the hardware is actually present in Model S & X, but it just can’t compare to passive optical (cameras), so we turned it off.
As a side note, any military systems that rely on radar “stealth” technology are toast in a modern conflict,…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 26, 2025
Elon Musk
Tesla reveals it has expanded its Robotaxi fleet in Austin
there has never been an exact count of the Robotaxi fleet size, and Tesla continues to speak in cryptic fashion, only hinting at what the number of active vehicles could be.

Tesla revealed that it has expanded its Robotaxi fleet in Austin, Texas, but has not yet disclosed the exact number of vehicles currently operating as driverless ride-hailing cars in the city.
Before Tesla launched the Robotaxi fleet in Austin on June 22, CEO Elon Musk stated that the fleet would be initially small, comprised of between ten and twenty vehicles in total.
The small fleet size was a way to limit rides and not overwhelm the company as it launched into a new territory: offering driverless rides to those looking to get around Austin. With safety being prioritized, it was understood.
However, there has never been an exact count of the Robotaxi fleet size, and Tesla continues to speak in cryptic fashion, only hinting at what the number of active vehicles could be.
On Tuesday, it expanded its geofence for the third time, increasing the service area in Austin beyond the downtown area and into the suburbs, including the airport and even the Gigafactory Texas.
Tesla one-ups Waymo once again with latest Robotaxi expansion in Austin
The size of the geofence is now 173 square miles, up from 91 square miles, which is what it grew to in early August with its second expansion.
The company also said it “increased the number of cars available by 50 percent,” but would not give an exact count:
Increased service area from 91 to 173 sq miles
Also increased # of cars available by 50%
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) August 27, 2025
Skeptics of the Robotaxi platform usually point to two things: the presence of a Safety Monitor in the vehicle and the lack of transparency regarding fleet size.
Tesla has done an excellent job of expanding the service area over the past two months, but it is also expanding the number of people it allows to hail a Robotaxi.
This makes the need for an increased fleet size more imperative.
However, no good reason comes to mind for the company not to tell an exact number, but Tesla has its justifications for it. Grok suggests the Robotaxi fleet could be anywhere from 30 to 75 vehicles in total, but this includes the Bay Area.
Musk did say Tesla is working to get the Bay Area fleet to over 100 vehicles. Hopefully, some clarification regarding fleet size will be provided in the coming weeks or months as the service area in Austin continues to expand.
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