Public sentiment is mixed, characterized by disappointment over the project's suspension due to environmental concerns alongside intrigue regarding the technological potential of SpaceX. While a portion of commenters express optimism about the innovative possibilities, there are significant concerns regarding feasibility, military implications, and environmental impacts, leading to critiques of government and military oversight. A notable faction of comments advocate for European military independence from US influence, reflecting broader geopolitical sentiments.

US Air Force

SpaceX

European nations

To be honest, the shock has worn off from this type of comment. As Europeans we need to step up, pay the cost and do it ourselves. We need defense autonomy and to move away from US weapons.

Spooknik

Let's get to post war then start talking about it

Serious-Molasses-982

*From Bloomberg News:*

The US is refusing to provide air defenses to back the “reassurance force” the UK and France are planning in a postwar Ukraine, people familiar with the matter said.

While British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has insisted a US so-called backstop is essential to deter Russia from breaching any future ceasefire deal, European allies have come to the realization during discussions with their American counterparts that President Donald Trump won’t provide the guarantees they have sought to back the Europe-led ‘coalition of the willing,’ according to the people, who requested anonymity disclosing private discussions.

[Read the full story here.](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-04/us-said-to-refuse-air-cover-for-europe-forces-in-postwar-ukraine)

bloomberg

Zelenskyy is blowing up bridges.

Trump is burning bridges.

arvigeus

Well of course.

The US is now backing Putin

ProgrammerAvailable6

So ask European countries. We have many countries that have focused their military precisely on air superiority. There is no shortage of fighter jetsand pretty much every country have developed their own SAMs.

Hot_Perspective1

A “post war Ukraine” will also be a “post Trump USA”.   The idiocy will have left the room.

binding_swamp

This is not shocking but still disturbing.

Dman45EVA

The US has to turn its head to china. It’s time for Europe to defend itself. If the EU wants to defend a non nato country let them. China is the biggest threat

thebirdlawa

Honestly the world needs to stop relying on weapons from the USA.

Killance1

The next US administration is going to have so much work to do just to get back to where they were when Trump took office. It’s actually insane.

IntelligentIdiocracy

Man, this would have been the easiest slam dunk for the US military industrial complex.

Never seen a president throw an opportunity so hard.

eeke1

The U.S. gets criticized for acting like the world’s police, and now we’re getting criticized for stepping back. Feels like a no-win situation either way.

8_mikehawk

Ukraine is not a member state and article 6 specifies that article 5 obligations only include an attack on 1) territory on member states in Europe and 2) forces, vessels, or aircraft when in or over any of these member states or stationed when the NATO treaty came into force. 

In other words, there is no NATO obligation whatsoever to defend European troops in Ukraine until Ukraine joins NATO. 

If Europe wants to challenge that, it would be reasonable for the US to demand NATO obligations also hold for Guam and alike.

zapreon

this American does NOT support that policy

Holiday-Clock-4999

Pardon US while we endure the national constipation of eventually shitting out this treasonous turd and his team of titty boy traitors.

UsefulImpact6793

Trump refuses. Most Americans think different.

brickyardjimmy

Europe isn’t sending troops into Ukraine because EU leaders are a wet fart away from the entire continent shifting to a far right ideology and current regimes are terrified of the gains those groups are making.  Losing a few hundred or god forbid a few thousand young people will be the nail in their coffin. 

The same reason the EU didn’t grow a pair of testicles and cut off Russian energy products several years ago.  

Instead they kept taking it and whining the US wasn’t acting quickly enough.

Vlad is killing your citizens in broad daylight and dragging your communication cables and you did nothing.

The US isn’t sending troops because the majority of the adults here are pretty pissed that the EU has been funding Russia through energy purchases and “loaning” Ukraine weapons at a slow trickle. 

This is laughable because it’s the EU saying “we are totally gonna fight but we can’t because the US won’t offer air support but if they did bro, we’d be in there in a second.” 

Staaahhp this childish bullshit.

Ready-Issue190

The American economy has benefited greatly from the reliance on America defence forces and tech. Money is now flowing in to European arms manufacturers, spending is increasing, the talk is all about good jobs and investment that will be created by the transition. 

BodgeJob23

Honestly, this is good for both sides.

The US can't even afford national healthcare, it needs to divest from being the world's military and provide better for its citizens.

Europe needs to be more independent defensively for their own security, so their very existence doesn't hinge on who is president that year.

chinnick967

Judging by Russia's pitiful airforce the Polish Airforce is more than a match on their own.

sirnoggin

Can't have US forces shooting down Russian assets. Putin would be very upset with Taco if that happened.

Mangled_Mini1214

I mean...this is just another great reason to become a military powerhouse. It sucks that the US is anti-Europe but this just means that Europe will become militarily independent even if there is short-term pain.

yus456

The only solution is for Europe to stand on its own military and defense. I think it is in Europe's own interest to do so. If the EU was had defensive strength, they wouldn't have overpaid for US assets

ncolpi

America is not a steadfast ally, and we need to admit we over relied on them. Europe, Canada and the Uk must learn to stand on our own

Aromatic-Deer3886

[deleted]

Even if the Americans agreed, nobody would believe they would live up to their word. They are too unreliable

G_UK

At least this time, the American troop withdrawal isn’t as chaotic as it was in Saigon or Kabul .

medicsansgarantee

There is nothing wrong with Europe protecting itself. Let's stop hiding behind the paper tiger as a reason to not spend money or have the US foot the bill. 

But there is the other side to this. As Europe wakes up and decides to take care of an enemy it could easily wreck, it dilutes American soft power, much the way taking away USAID did. As the world changes, if it becomes safer, does it need the US? If China would stop threatening Taiwan, stopped selling guns to every dictator, propping up Iran and N Korea, how much of a need would we have for a military?

Lots of hypotheticals. But I question how long this sort of policy will last. Other presidents didn't understand how to use the military, said and di dumb things on the world stage, and things bounced back. We'll see.

Bullmoose39

First_Consequence741

Then why do we need all these US bases in Europe? Shut them down and ship them out.

Jensen1994

Trump has no balls, can’t be trusted for anything.

Kayos___

There should be zero NATO involvement in Ukraine until they are a member.  They cannot have membership until they repel Russia and eliminate the insurgency in their eastern boarder regions.

Cool-Airline-9172

Figured the US were out from the way they were talking about NATO in trumps first term. Always knew a second term would be dangerous for Europe and the wider world.

Flashjordan69

Thats why french and italian are ramping up production for interceptors for the sampt-t production, can't trust 'muricans word anymore, but hey it's nothing new.

Fit_Fisherman_9840

The timing is suspiciously the day after Agent Trump contacted his handler who said he was going to retaliate.

I know that the retaliation will mainly be against Ukraine but Russia has a history of attacking other European nations / murdering citizens there.

Intruder313

Patriot provides 2 things.Numbers and anti TBM capabilitys


Numbers are being worked on


And theres another system being developed that could cover the anti TBM role (although its main purpose is ABM)

Dpek1234

I'm struggling to find out why the USA needs to be part of that at all. 

We can certainly sell Europe anything they need.

But the USA doesn't need to provide anything else. We don't need to provide manpower, or airplanes, or anything else that is ours. 

That's a European job, or even a NATO job.

Maybe Europe should be thinking about funding NATO better, so NATO can fund the border protection

Analyst-Effective

Trump!  what a stain he and his supporters are on the honor and values of this nation. Rather he and they reflect the horror and stupidity that this nation has inflicted upon the world at times.  Trump can occasionally recognize problems (the soft on China consensus, the trade imbalance from Breton Woods outliving reality, the lack of European defense spending, etc etc), but then goes about making the problem far worse.  And most of his analysis of issues is just plain wrong.  Dead wrong. And his "solutions" makes things so much worse (Iran nuclear program, Climate crisis, trade deficits, etc).  Europe needs to stand up on it own with respect to its defense, and it is starting that process.  Good. But I pray that the US will recognize that our partnership with Europe has been the key to peace, strength and mutual prosperity.  While perhaps the post Trumpian relationship with a stronger Europe will not be the complete embrace of the past, it can still be a partnership for democracy and prosperity. I personally am sorry for the shit show we have unleashed on you all. And I am working hard to turn it around.  

One thing about the shit hitting the  fan..... it takes a long time to clean it up.

Capable_Diamond6251

While this is objectively very funny, I just had a disturbing thought cross my mind. Elon... Elon's gonna fucking end up being president...  isn't he?!? Before you pipe up with something about how he's not a native born citizen or whatever, we all fucking thought doing an insurrection AND failing at it were also things that were firmly considered shit that makes you unelectable too.

Sweaty-Feedback-1482

We only see the big rocket launch tests. People need to remember that there is a ton of work happening that’s not public. NASA and SpaceX are working hard on multiple fronts to get HLS Starship ready.

Bensemus

Is bi weekly once every 2 weeks or twice a week here?


I expect prop test to slip, but 5 months out means we should be starting to see the hardware right about now.

FINALCOUNTDOWN99

&gt; There are HLS crew cabin, sleeping quarters, and laboratory mock ups at Boca Chica

Many of us speculated on this, it's nice to get confirmation of progress there as well.

&gt; NASA is looking for a bi-weekly cadence with only the Boca pads at first and then later getting 39a online

That is nuts! 2025 is gonna be epic!

ResidentPositive4122

Prop transfer in March is insane... 

But yeah I'm so excited for the day we get to see more about the HLS... it's so fun hearing some new info, and you just know they're busy on it inside the factory.

TheEpicGold

i'm pretty sure the word was "lavatory", and the subtitles were simply wrong.

j--__

This is amazing! Can't wait to see the results of the November design update

MartianFromBaseAlpha

Bi-weekly when? A cadence like that should lead to incredibly rapid improvements. Mars 2026 test flight on the table?

I_post_rarely

Did I hear the NASA guy say, unmanned HLS cargo landing on the Moon in 2026? Is that still possible?

SpaceX would have to hit all of their milestones, right on schedule, to do this,  I think.

peterabbit456

Hot take: SpaceX HLS will not be the cause of delays for Artemis III.  I'm not saying they will be perfectly on time, but other required parts of the mission will be more delayed than them.

flapsmcgee

Lol, SpaceX actually is on track for the overly ambitious and imaginary timelines they were given.

dev_hmmmmm

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

|Fewer Letters|More Letters|
|-------|---------|---|
|[EIS](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/1ggt69a/stub/lutod5w "Last usage")|Environmental Impact Statement|
|[FAA](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/1ggt69a/stub/luu7uo0 "Last usage")|Federal Aviation Administration|
|[GTO](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/1ggt69a/stub/luuadoe "Last usage")|[Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit](http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/20140116-how-to-get-a-satellite-to-gto.html)|
|[HLS](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/1ggt69a/stub/luvstug "Last usage")|[Human Landing System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#Human_Landing_System) (Artemis)|
|[LEO](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/1ggt69a/stub/luuadoe "Last usage")|Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)|
| |Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)|
|[LLO](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/1ggt69a/stub/luuadoe "Last usage")|Low Lunar Orbit (below 100km)|
|[LNG](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/1ggt69a/stub/luv0hxp "Last usage")|Liquefied Natural Gas|
|[MMOD](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/1ggt69a/stub/luu2z3p "Last usage")|Micro-Meteoroids and Orbital Debris|
|[NSF](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/1ggt69a/stub/lutghgk "Last usage")|[NasaSpaceFlight forum](http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com)|
| |National Science Foundation|
|[OLM](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/1ggt69a/stub/luteucr "Last usage")|Orbital Launch Mount|
|[RCS](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/1ggt69a/stub/lutrxnx "Last usage")|Reaction Control System|
|[SLS](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/1ggt69a/stub/lx1vrqy "Last usage")|Space Launch System heavy-lift|
|[TPS](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/1ggt69a/stub/luu2z3p "Last usage")|Thermal Protection System for a spacecraft (on the Falcon 9 first stage, the engine "Dance floor")|

|Jargon|Definition|
|-------|---------|---|
|[Raptor](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/1ggt69a/stub/luupyae "Last usage")|[Methane-fueled rocket engine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raptor_\(rocket_engine_family\)) under development by SpaceX|
|[cryogenic](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/1ggt69a/stub/luuadoe "Last usage")|Very low temperature fluid; materials that would be gaseous at room temperature/pressure|
| |(In re: rocket fuel) Often synonymous with hydrolox|
|hydrolox|Portmanteau: liquid hydrogen fuel, liquid oxygen oxidizer|

**NOTE**: Decronym for Reddit is no longer supported, and Decronym has moved to Lemmy; requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below.

----------------
^(*Decronym is a community product of r/SpaceX, implemented* )[*^by ^request*](https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/3mz273//cvjkjmj)  
^(15 acronyms in this thread; )[^(the most compressed thread commented on today)](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/1gq949y)^( has 36 acronyms.)  
^([Thread #13491 for this sub, first seen 1st Nov 2024, 05:41]) 
^[[FAQ]](http://decronym.xyz/) [^([Full list])](http://decronym.xyz/acronyms/SpaceXLounge) [^[Contact]](https://hachyderm.io/@Two9A) [^([Source code])](https://gistdotgithubdotcom/Two9A/1d976f9b7441694162c8)

Decronym

Bi weekly meaning twice a week or every other week?

SuperRiveting

Extrapolating from the RGV summary: 

* Catching Starship In 2025
* Starships fully clad in external tiling (I have been saying this will be inevitable for years.  At the very least, Orbital Propellant Depot and HLS lander need it.)

KnifeKnut

It takes 3 months to prop transfer from 1 tanker to 1 ship??

pabmendez

ToeSniffer245

MacGibber

"Is that what it actually looks like?"

"Yes."

"Seriously?"

"Absolutely.  We're talking about the flag, right?"

Superman246o1

ECMeenie

“Boeing, shocked at actually winning the contract hasn’t figured out what the rest of the aircraft looks like yet”

ninjanoodlin

Oh boy… wonder how the “canards aren’t stealthy” crowd are gonna react to this

AzureFantasie

So I am seeing canards? That would be a first for U.S. fighters. Willing to bet it's also a fixed wing and no vertical stabilizers on the tail? Thinking the love child of a J-36, F-22 and a Typhoon?

dragonsback79

Canards? Dear god, the europeans were right all along…

StopSpankingMeDad2

Hot_Net_4845

The other render they showed during the briefing and in the air force promo video didnt have canards

Kwpthrowaway2

Does it have canards? Or is it that the shadows are playing with my mind?

KevinDecosta74

Wouldn't surprise me if it looks just like what the Chinese just showed off as their "6th gen" jet.

And are those canards?

Died_Of_Dysentery1

How many billions over budget will this one be?

A3bilbaNEO

I watched the briefing on this and learned that its speed is top. Over 2, which is something.

portraitsofspeed

Ngl, the graphic looks a bit cheap for a tens of billions of dollars program.

Insanely cool plane though.

Downtown-Act-590

3 demonstrators have already been flown, presumably one each from Boeing, Lockheed, and Northrop. CGI is being used here for secrecy, not because the (prototype) plane doesn’t exist.

DapperDolphin2

KebabG

Is this award to just build a prototype? Or is this award an actual number of fighters that need to be delivered? Because what the hell? We don't even know what it looks it like, much less having a bake-off against a competitor?

DroidArbiter

The fact that there are canards makes this fucking hilarious, holy shit it just made the entire "CCP shill" morons on every single aviation related video talking about the J20 just look like clowns overnight

Is this the NGAD? It looks sleek AF.
So cool. Obviously inspired on the F-22.

NotSuperman9000

Decent-Log-2495

Good thing I don’t see anywhere for a door plug

nomolosnitsuj

CN38

no_warning-shots117

Did Tacit Blue have a baby? With a nose like that...

Mike312

47? Are you fucking kidding me? 

I hate it already.

NCRider

Exotic_Donkey4929

Crazy how this sub fills up with armchair experts only because the current chromosome hoarder in chief is associated with this project now

rx149

Another aircraft that costs a billion dollars to taxi to the runway?

UpsetAstronomer

bockclockula

A cockpit for those Boston Dynamics, Shaggy and Scooby killin... cartwheeling machines.

Part-TimeFlamer

It appears to have canards, maybe an optical illusion

annoyinglyAddicted

 Looks cool. Did he mention when it will go into service?

GlumIce852

Baxterftw

thespank

Needs a  Waving inflatable arm flailing tube man either side

#

Minute_University_98

The canopy area looks enormous for a fighter.

Kruse

DeathLikeAHammer

47.. we could not have chose a different number? Way to suck up Boeing..

Loud_Spell224

Heard it’ll be just a 737 with a facelift and couple of upgraded fighter jet engines attached to the wing. That way they won’t have to retrain pilots.

Forward-Weather4845

Nuclear_corella

The US Air Force has suspended its plan to test hypersonic rocket cargo deliveries in partnership with SpaceX due to environmental concerns.

US Air Force SpaceX Project Suspension

Why This Matters

Public Sentiment Summary

Highlighted Comments

Parties Involved

What the people want