resupply

The president has threatened to withdraw federal contracts with Musk's company, Space X. Nasa relies on the firm's Falcon 9 rocket fleet to resupply the International Space Station with crew and supplies.

She added: “In the mail is where a lot of everyday supplies arrive for those living here. The hikers on the Pacific Crest and John Muir trails, the climbers camping on the side of El Capitan — resupply parcels are crucial for them to continue their journeys.”

He asked about whether Ukraine would use a ceasefire to mobilise, retrain and resupply its troops, without suggesting his forces might do the same.

Among those firms was the dynamic new start-up, SpaceX, which was awarded a contract to develop its reusable Falcon rockets and Dragon Space capsule to resupply the International Space Station with crew and cargo.

“We’re really looking at it from the standpoint of, ‘Let’s try to minimise the number of resupply missions’,” she says.