SpaceX has been caught in the crossfire of the ongoing feud between Donald Trump and company founder Elon Musk. The two men have been sharing barbs over the President’s proposed budget bill, with Musk criticizing it for including too much spending and increasing the deficit. On Thursday afternoon, the President posted on Truth Social that “[t]he easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.”

In response, Musk tweeted that “In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.” (A few hours later, in a reply to another X user, he said “Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon.”)

If Trump were to follow through on cancelling contracts, or Elon changes his mind again about Dragon, the biggest price may well be paid by NASA. Although the space agency played a crucial role in getting the company off the ground, SpaceX doesn’t need it anymore. According to Musk, the company is currently bringing in around $15.5 billion a year in revenue. Forbes estimates that about 80% of this comes from its internet business, Starlink. And while SpaceX still gets plenty of government business, it also launches dozens of commercial spacecraft every year.

The reverse, however, isn’t true. NASA relies heavily on SpaceX for its operations–the company’s rockets launched more than half of the agency’s space missions last year. And while NASA has other partners in aerospace, many are years behind SpaceX in terms of development.

Los Angeles-based Rocket Lab, for example, launched the second-most NASA missions last year. But its Electron rocket can only handle small satellites–not the larger spacecraft that the space agency typically launches. While that company is working on a bigger rocket, it’s not expected to launch until later this year.

SpaceX is also currently the only American company that can carry astronauts to the International Space Station, thanks to its Dragon spacecraft. Without it, NASA will be forced to again rely on the Russian space agency for this task until Boeing is able to get its Starliner spacecraft certified. That may take awhile, given that on its first flight last June, technical problems ended up stranding its two astronauts on the ISS for months. Neither Boeing nor the agency has provided a timeline for a second mission.

SpaceX does more than just ferry crew members to the ISS, it also delivers most of its cargo. And while there is one major alternative, Cygnus, which is operated by Northrop Grumman, its last two trips were launched on SpaceX rockets, with a third SpaceX flight scheduled for later this year. A third cargo option, being developed by Sierra Space, isn’t making its maiden voyage until later this year.

Fallout from the Trump-Musk blowup may impact NASA’s future plans, too. SpaceX had been a prominent part of the agency’s plan for the Artemis program, which will return astronauts to the Moon. In its budget request released this month, the Trump Administration called for the retirement of the agency’s SLS rocket and Orion space capsule after a planned third and final mission. They are to be replaced by spacecraft from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin–and SpaceX.

The timing for all this couldn’t be worse for NASA, which is currently leaderless. President Trump had nominated billionaire Jared Isaacman as NASA Administrator, a move that had attracted bipartisan support. But last Friday, the White House pulled his nomination, just days before he was expected to be confirmed by the Senate.

This may have contributed to the Trump-Musk blowup, too. Isaacman’s company, Shift4, is an investor in SpaceX, and Isaacman himself has contracted two separate space flights from the company. In an appearance on the All-In podcast on Wednesday, he suggested that one reason his nomination was pulled may have been his connections to Musk. “There were some people with some axes to grind,” he said. “And I was a visible target.”