Maligned NASA Rocket Got $4 Billion Rescue as Trump, Musk Split (1)

When SpaceX founder Elon Musk became a close adviser to President Donald Trump, some space-industry watchers assumed it would spell the end of the Space Launch System, a NASA rocket built by Boeing Co. that detractors have derided as a costly boondoggle.

Instead, the Musk-Trump alliance came to an abrupt end. The SLS is living on.

On the same day that Trump threatened to pull the plug on Musk’s federal contracts, Senator Ted Cruz, whose state is home to the NASA Johnson Space Center, introduced legislation that would provide $4.1 billion in new funds for the SLS, ...