Washington DC - Elon Musk on Thursday briefly threatened to pull his SpaceX Dragon spacecraft – vital for ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station – amid the public meltdown of his relationship with President Donald Trump.

"In light of the President's statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately," Musk wrote on X.

Later, in response to a post urging both parties to "cool off," he responded: "Good advice. Ok, we won't decommission Dragon."

The comments came after Trump and Musk's nearly year-long political alliance imploded in spectacular fashion, with the two trading public insults on social media.

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The Republican hinted at stripping billions of dollars in government subsidies for SpaceX, while the far-right billionaire claimed Trump was mentioned in the notorious "Epstein files" related to the convicted pedophile financier.

The Crew Dragon is currently the only US spacecraft certified to carry crew to the ISS under a contract worth more than $4.9 billion. A different variant, Cargo Dragon, delivers supplies.

Following Musk's announcement, NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens said on X that the government space agency would "continue to execute upon the President’s vision for the future of space."

"We will continue to work with our industry partners to ensure the President’s objectives in space are met," she said.

NASA had hoped to certify Boeing's Starliner for crewed missions, but that program imploded after the spacecraft experienced propulsion issues en route to the orbital lab with its first astronaut crew.

The Starliner ultimately returned to Earth empty, while the two NASA astronauts who had been stranded on the ISS for months were brought home by SpaceX earlier this year.

The next scheduled crew launch is Tuesday's Axiom-4 mission, which will see a Crew Dragon transport astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary to the ISS.