Currently, like many other people in the federal government, NASA is involved in the Trump administration’s first turbulent day.
In the past two weeks, the leadership has changed in the form of a provisional administrator Janet Petro. Janet Petro’s ascension was surprising. Her first act was to delete diversity, fairness, inclusion, and accessibility agreements to the agency employees to “report” to those who did not execute this order. Immediately, civil servants began receiving emails from the US Human Resources Management Bureau.
Next, SPACEX’s founder Elon Musk’s actions. Last week, he doubted by claiming that NASA was “stuck” at a space station. (Astronauts are completely safe and return home.) Probably more importantly, he owns the most important contractor of the space agency, and in recent weeks of the US government. It is deeply involved in the operation of. For some NASA employees, whether they are the truth or not, they are working for Musk and have no uncomfortable sensations to eliminate contracts with SpaceX.
This concern was raised when Peter announced that Petro had joined an agency as a senior adviser for NASA administrators, a long -standing SPACEX employee named Michael Artenhofen. Altenhofen was a skilled engineer who spent the past 15 years at NASA, but recently spent as a leader in the human Spaceflight program. He certainly brings his expertise, but his employment is also concerned about the impact of SPACEX on NASA’s business. Petro did not respond to comments on Monday on the potential conflict and the scope of Artenhofen’s involvement.
This weekend, I talked to NASA’s sources and sent text messages at various centers nationwide, but the priority message is that the morale of the agency is “ridiculous and low.” Recently, meetings between public servants, such as all -handed and leadership, gathered at the Langlieri Taste Center in NASA in Virginia, are full of tension. No one knows what will happen next.
