Concern about SpaceX influence at NASA grows with new appointee – Ars Technica
Morale at the space agency is absurdly low, sources say.
Like a lot of the rest of the federal government right now, NASA is reeling during the first turbulent days of the Trump administration.The last two weeks have brought a change in leadership in the form of interim administrator Janet Petro, whose ascension was a surprise. Her first act was to tell agency employees to remove diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility contracts and to “report” on anyone who did not carry out this order. Soon, civil servants began receiving emails from the US Office of Personnel Management that some perceived as an effort to push them to resign.Then there are the actions of SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Last week he sowed doubt by claiming NASA had “stranded” astronauts on the space station. (The astronauts are perfectly safe and have a ride home.) Perhaps more importantly, he owns the space agency’s most important contractor and, in recent weeks, has become deeply enmeshed in operating the US government through his Department of Government Efficiency. For some NASA employees, whether or not it is true, there is now an uncomfortable sense that they are working for Musk and to dole out contracts to SpaceX.This concern was heightened late Friday when Petro announced that a longtime SpaceX employee named Michael Altenhofen had joined the agency “as a senior advisor to the NASA Administrator.” Altenhofen is an accomplished engineer who interned at NASA in 2005 but has spent the last 15 years at SpaceX, most recently as a leader of human spaceflight programs. He certainly brings expertise, but his hiring also raises concerns about SpaceX’s influence over NASA operations. Petro did not respond to a request for comment on Monday about potential conflicts of interest and the scope of Altenhofen’s involvement.I spent this weekend talking and texting with NASA sources at various centers around the country, and the overriding message is that morale at the agency is “absurdly low.” Meetings between civil servants and their leadership, such as an all-hands gathering at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia recently, have been fraught with tension. No one knows what will happen next.In the absence of clear guidance from the Trump administration, rumors have been running rampant about the future of the space agency. They include concerns about the possibility of a 30 percent budget cut, consolidating field centers, potentially moving headquarters out of Washington, DC, taking astronauts off of Artemis II, canceling the Space Launch System rocket, and more. (Although there is a kernel of truth for many of these rumors, no final policy decisions have been made, according to sources.)Beyond the rumors and the uncertainty and unease this engenders, there are very real policy issues that require some sort of resolution in the coming months. Among them are:Inside the space agency, civil servants have placed their hope on getting an administrator named soon to bring some stability to the agency and begin answering some of these important policy questions. There is a lot of cautious optimism about private astronaut Jared Isaacman, whom Trump has nominated to lead the space agency. The NASA people I have spoken to in recent days have said they hope Senate confirmation of Isaacman as NASA administrator comes soon.Isaacman’s hearing in the US Senate is unlikely to occur before the second half of February, and some questions remain about him. Isaacman is close to SpaceX, having flown two Dragon missions. He has paid, and possibly still owes, significant money to SpaceX for the Polaris Program of missions he has signed up for. So, there are some financial entanglements.However, over the last five years, Isaacman has become a known commodity in the space community. His nomination has been cheered by most space organizations. Those who have met him have found Isaacman to be earnest and interested in spaceflight and in advancing exploration for all—not as some agent for SpaceX. He is seen as the kind of young, dynamic, pro-space leader with the potential to usher NASA into the 21st century and out of the Apollo era it has been stuck in for decades.Ars Technica has been separating the signal from
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