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In a last-minute decision, White House decides not to terminate NASA employees

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/02/nasa-receives-11th-hour-reprieve-from-probationary-employee-cuts/
dukeofdummies @lemmy.world - 10mon

... I mean that would've been the clearest conflict of interest you could've possibly summoned.

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BedSharkPal @lemmy.ca - 10mon

SpaceX gets most of their money from NASA contracts no?

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PhilipTheBucket @ponder.cat - 10mon

I think that is probably the actual reason. Musk probably fired most of NASA, and then realized that the absolute carnage would in this case impact him personally, and it suddenly became an important issue and he needs to have them all rehired so that they can keep paying him his contracts. He still doesn't give a shit about other people's contracts / medications / intelligence operations / statutorily enforced payments / whatever.

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corsicanguppy @lemmy.ca - 10mon

The problem is that so many other companies also get their money from NASA. Cutting out NASA makes it a clear pipe from gov to spaceX.

Of course, so many other projects NASA is running will also just die, but those don't even help Elon anyway so they're pointless. Or so.

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keepthepace @slrpnk.net - 10mon

Thing is, I don't think NASA and SpaceX compete. NASA is not a for-profit company and was happy to see successful private companies in the sector. They'll happily be a SpaceX client so that they can focus on actual research and do things that are not profitable (yet)

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dukeofdummies @lemmy.world - 10mon

In practice, you're probably right.

But in terms of "I wanna cut waste, and make the government lean! So I am gonna delete the space part of the government and replace it with my own!"

Just sounds bad, like really bad. Even worse than the armored Teslas. I can't imagine NASA is the top of people's lists of "utter wastes of time" It's not a regulator, it's not in the "known enemies" list unless you're a flat earther. I dunno how you spin it to be palatable.

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BarqsHasBite - 10mon

Really doubt that was it.

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onlinepersona @programming.dev - 10mon

I do my best to block any news regarding the new administration, so this comes at quite a surprise that it was even considered. Always thought NASA was one of the great prides of the country, but it seems like those days are long gone.

Anti Commercial-AI license

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ruk_n_rul @monyet.cc - 10mon

NASA peaked during the Apollo project, after which budget plummeted and never reach the 1% mark on the national budget again

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Clay_pidgin - 10mon

In the mass firing they lake of the people who maintain nuclear weapons and the people working on bird flu. Once they realized they need those people they started trying to rehire them.

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TachyonTele @lemm.ee - 10mon

Who was the one person that down voted this, and why?

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deFrisselle @lemmy.sdf.org - 10mon

Best thing would be to terminate Artemis

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RememberTheApollo_ @lemmy.world - 10mon

Yeah, shit idea. And exactly why NASA gets shit on for consuming money with less to show for it.

Spend billions on a program set up by one administration, then some tool comes along and wants to cut costs because they want to look effective and cuts NASA’s programs. Program never completes, now it’s just a waste. NASA, being by default a scientific endeavor thar doesn't need to return an profit other than exportation and research data, is an easy target. Billions invested and nothing to show for it. WhY iS NaSA So iNeFfeCtIve!?! Repeat for another program later.

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