President Trump’s decision to pull a close associate of Elon Musk’s out of the running to lead NASA helped doom an extraordinary partnership.

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.

President Donald Trump was dejected, processing his very public split with the world’s richest man.