He’s the greatest genius the world has ever known:
Days after Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency cut hundreds of jobs at the Federal Aviation Administration — including critical safety roles — his company, SpaceX, has secured a contract with the agency to use Musk’s Starlink satellite internet to help manage U.S. airspace. Yes, it’s a massive conflict of interest.
According to Bloomberg, which first reported the deal, the billionaire approved the shipping of 4,000 Starlink terminals to the FAA last week. In a statement released Monday, the FAA wrote that one such terminal is already being tested “at its facility in Atlantic City and two terminals at non-safety critical sites in Alaska.”
It’s not a conflict of interest. It’s straight up corruption. And apparently, he just did this despite the fact the Verizon has a $2.3 billion contract already in place. But hey, the genius gets what the genius wants.
Earlier this year, the FAA ordered SpaceX to carry out an investigation of what the company called a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” (read “explosion”) of its Starship rocket. Last year, the agency proposed $633,009 in civil penalties against SpaceX, citing failure “to follow its license requirements during two launches.”
The move prompted Musk to declare that “the fundamental problem is that humanity will forever be confined to Earth unless there is radical reform at the FAA!”
It might be why almost immediately after being granted virtually unchecked administrative powers, Musk set his “chainsaw of bureaucracy” against the agency that regulates his own company.
As Philip Bump quipped on BlueSky, “I think I just figured out why his spaceships keep blowing up.”