Інженерів SpaceX призначили старшими радниками керівника Федерального авіаційного управління / Depositphotos
Sources of the publication WIRED reports that SpaceX engineers have been appointed senior advisors to the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), an organization that, among other things, authorizes space rocket launches (including those of Elon Musk’s company).
On Sunday, Sean Duffy, the secretary of the Department of Transportation, which oversees the FAA, announced in a post on X that SpaceX engineers would visit the Virginia Air Traffic Control Command Center «for a tour», but by the time the publication writes, they were already included in the FAA — through a special authority that allows government leaders «to hire people with limited authority without regard to job competition».
Interestingly, SpaceX engineers were hired by after the dismissal of 400 FAA employeessome of whom were on probation, and in general at a time when the the largest number of deadly aviation tragedies in the United States in more than 10 years.
Another caveat is that «none of the SpaceX engineers were fully vetted before they started» — although, unlike some young employees of Elon Musk at DOGEwho gained access to critical systems of various U.S. agencies, employees of his space company at least have FAA-related experience, and their names are fully disclosed in the report (Ted Malaska, Thomas Kiernan, Sam Smil, and Brady Glantz).
Malaska, according to his LinkedIn post, is the senior director of application software at SpaceX, and previously worked as senior director of data development at Capitol One and senior architect at FINRA. The other three are young SpaceX software engineers who appear to have just graduated from college or university before working for Musk.
Despite Duffy’s statements on social media about a «simple field trip», acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau sent an email to employees saying that the agency has hired «special agents» — yes, that’s right, it’s is the same position Musk was given in the Trump administration
«We are asking for their help to develop solutions,» Rocheleau wrote in a letter seen by WIRED journalists.
The week before, the Secretary of the Department of Transportation said he would not mind receiving «help from smart engineers» in particular for the reform of NOTAM notification systems — in response to a question about the role of DOGE in national airspace matters.
According to reports The New York Times (actually confirmed by WIRED’s sources), SpaceX functioned as a «springboard» for the DOGE team before Trump’s inauguration, and indeed many employees of the space company (like xAI and Tesla) joined the Performance Department as «special government employees» — that is, they will not receive a salary, but will have access to some classified documents.
As noted by ArstechnicaThe US Federal Aviation Administration has been in close contact with Elon Musk’s SpaceX — and this cooperation has often been on the verge of conflict. In January, the FAA temporarily suspended the space company’s program after Starship rocket explodes during flightdamaging state property on the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean. The investigation into the incident continues to this day, and Musk himself characterized the failure as «minor pothole on the road»and complained that this would slow down the pace of SpaceX launches, which has planned as many as 25 for 2025.
In September, the FAA also proposed to fine the company $633,000 for two incidents in 2023 when SpaceX allegedly failed to comply with the terms of its license.
«The fundamental problem is that humanity will remain on Earth forever unless the FAA makes radical reforms!», — wrote Musk at the time, calling on the then-chairman of the board, Mike Whitaker, to resign.
And Whitaker did leave in January.
«I told Elon that he should avoid conflicts of interest», — said Trump at a press conference this week. «So we won’t allow Elon to participate in anything like that, maybe even space-related».