The Trump administration’s decision to shutter two offices at Nasa risks “dramatically” increasing the costs of space exploration, while handing Elon Musk more influence over the agency, fired workers have warned.
Nasa’s office of technology, policy and strategy and office of the chief scientist provide independent analysis on key investments and strategies. Both are set to close, amid widespread cuts at the agency.
Workers inside the two offices told the Guardian these cuts would undermine the ongoing goals of manned missions to the moon and Mars – and raise questions over conflicts of interest for Musk, who remains CEO of SpaceX, the rocket and satellite giant, while leading the so-called “department of government efficiency”, or Doge, which has led the charge to cut back the federal government under Donald Trump.
The US president has nominated the billionaire Jared Isaacman, a SpaceX investor and close ally of Musk, to become Nasa’s next administrator.
With a SpaceX Crew Dragon craft, which arrived at the International Space Station early on Sunday, due to fly a pair of US astronauts stuck there for more than nine months home on Tuesday, the cuts have fueled fears that Musk’s power over Nasa is on the rise.
“Musk wants to go to Mars. They need no detractors,” said one senior Nasa official. “The most independent and unbiased views on this come from these offices, not centers or directorates who don’t care as long as there is money flowing in.”.
Nasa announced last week it was shutting down the two offices.
About 20 employees are affected by the cuts, with their last day scheduled for 10 April. Typically fired federal workers are provided 60 days’ notice, but Nasa says this was cut to 30 due to the “urgent need” to comply with an executive order signed by Trump.
Nasa’s acting administrator, Janet Petro, was appointed by Trump in January. Soon after, Petro named Michael Altenhofen, a longtime SpaceX employee, as senior adviser, further inciting concerns about the conflicts of interest between the agency and Musk as SpaceX receives lucrative federal contracts.
When Petro had dinner with Musk last year, she said the encounter was “one of the most fascinating conversations of my entire life”.
The two shuttered offices are “extremely critical”, according to the senior official, who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. Officials working for Trump and Musk are “hurting Nasa long term”, they said. “We’re all pissed off because we really care about this agency, and have spent years working in various parts of the agencies, at centers and other directorates, to bring that knowledge to [leaders in] the A-suite.”
The “cruelty and callousness” of those executing the cuts “is just astounding”, the official added, claiming that fired employees had been blocked from consideration for realignment to different agencies and any associated awards and bonuses.
Another terminated employee, at Nasa’s office of technology, policy and Strategy, argued that closing the offices was a shortsighted decision. “We’re missing out on the longer-term vision for moon to Mars exploration by cutting these offices, and probably increasing the costs of these missions dramatically, without this analysis and more strategic tech development,” they said.
The cuts announced last week took the agency’s rank and file by surprise, according to the employee. “These offices brought a lot in terms of efficiency,” they said. “They had very low overhead[s] because they weren’t building anything. It was just the cost of a handful of employees that were making major impacts to cost savings by thinking about how to streamline tech investments, and from an overall strategic picture what science should be focusing on.”
SpaceX is Nasa’s largest private contractor. The agency says it has spent more than $15bn on work undertaken by SpaceX over the years, and it keeps coming: In February, Nasa awarded the firm a contract of up to $300m for its Pandora mission launch, and a $100m contract to launch its Near Earth Object surveyor mission.
Critics have accused Nasa of preferential treatment towards Musk’s business empire. “Simultaneously awarding his private companies with billions of dollars in federal contracts raises grave questions as to whether you and your agencies are enabling corrupt favoritism to benefit Mr Musk,” the US senators Adam Schiff and Tammy Duckworth wrote to Nasa last month.
Nasa has confirmed an employee affiliated with Doge has been embedded within the agency.
“Given Doge’s destructive seizure of power throughout the federal government and the unique conflicts-of-interest that Elon Musk possesses with Nasa, Doge’s presence at the agency creates an unprecedented threat from within Nasa’s own house,” three members of Congress wrote to the agency in February.
A spokesperson for Nasa said: “To optimize our workforce, and in compliance with an executive order, Nasa is beginning its phased approach to a reduction in force, known as a RIF. A small number of individuals received notification March 10 they are a part of Nasa’s RIF.”
Nasa is working on a “broader reorganization plan”, the spokesperson added, as part of Trump’s blitz on the federal government.
