Personnel of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are on the site in NASA to review the agency’s payment. Credit: NASA/Keagan Nai
The Department of Efficiency of the Government (DOGE) is working under a mandate from President Donald Trump to reduce the government’s expenses, its next goal: NASA.
Space agency told flight On Friday that Dogi personnel are already on the site to review their payment.
“We are a federal agency; We are coming to Dogi, “Janet Petro said, NASA’s administrator said, speaking at the annual commercial space conference in Washington, DC on Wednesday,” They are going to see what he has done in other agencies, Payment and what money is out.
Petro did not specify what would happen for Dogi or what would happen to the level of reach of his personnel.
The caretaker administrator said that the staff at NASA headquarters in Washington, DC, “In fact all our executive orders are trying to wrap our heads because they are flying on us.”
In January, the first woman Petro, the first woman to serve in her role, told the employees that the agency would close all diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) offices and cancel the related contracts to follow the Trump Executive Order. Last week, the information technology team of the agency asked the workers to remove personal pronouns from their email display names to comply with another White House instruction.
NASA’s headquarters have ordered employees to rub all mention of all mentioned words “under leadership women,” “environment justice,” and other DIA-related words from agency websites. On Friday, it issued an interim instruction in the agency implementing the reduction in the force (RIF), which is “working in areas that will probably be subject to RIF” according to an executive orderwill impact personnel. Under the scheme, the DOGE teams will produce the monthly hiring report.
Representative Grace Meng (DN.Y.) on Wednesday expressed concern about Dogi’s access to NASA’s payments, calling it a “struggle for the interests of the multibillion-dollar”. The informal government department, created through an executive order, is performed by Elone Musk, CEO of SpaceX, which the White House has recognized as a “Special Government Employees”.
Meng wrote in a letter to Petro, “Any access can provide Mr. Musk’s company … with Insider information, which will benefit SpaceX at the cost of the contestants and taxpayers of that company.” , “This type of journey will be inappropriate.”
SpaceX has received more than $ 14.5 billion in NASA funding, including about 13 billion dollars, federal expenditure figures in the last decade. In the financial year 2024, the California Institute of Technology was the only private contractor to receive a large piece of pie. SpaceX’s largest obligation is NASA’s Artemis III Human Landing System (HLS) and International Space Station (ISS) for the construction of a few $ 4.93 billion for some $ 4.93 billion for astronaut rotation services. Its crew’s dragon spacecraft has blown the missions of all NASA’s commercial crew missions till date.
“NASA has highly sensitive ownership data related to the capabilities and constitutions of its contractors-some of which can become a direct competitor of SpaceX or compete with Spacex for the upcoming agency contracts,” Representative Zo Loofgrain (D-D- Calif) has written. And Valerie Food (DN.C.) in a letter to Petro on 6 February.
Dogi’s participation to the ranking members of the Congress’s space committees, both the lofgrain and the Faushe, called the Dogi’s participation “case of serious concern” and requested transparency about its activities in NASA.
Earlier this month, Petro announced a 15 -year -old SpaceX veteran Michael Alternhofen, which was as “Senior Advisor to NASA Administrator”. Altenhofen’s level of participation is not clear. In January, Trump announced a private astronaut Jerid Isaqman – SpaceX’s most important private customer – as his pick to lead NASA. The Senate Commerce Committee has not yet determined the hearing of confirmation for ISACM.
Isaqman has called NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) – Artemis 2 and Artemis 3 assigned vehicles – a “derogatoryly expensive” rocket. According to NASA Inspector General Investigation, Boeing, the lead contractor for SLS Block 1B configuration, has contributed more than $ 700 million to additional project costs. This can aim to review Dogi.
Earlier this week, Boeing said that it is planning to launch hundreds of employees due to the anticipated “amendment” for the Artemis program. Neither NASA nor the White House has announced any official change in the campaign.
Editor Note: This story appeared for the first time flight.
