SpaceX CEO Elon Musk called for the resignation of FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker, following testimony the FAA chief gave earlier this week, as tensions between the company and FAA heat up.
Mr. Whitaker is sounding more and more like a bureaucrat (like Mr Huerta)! As I have said before the FAA will just bury commercial space launches in bureaucracy. If the FAA would enact SMS themselves, it would give SMS more credibility than it has now. Kind of telling that the FAA hasn’t done so.
If President Trump wins in November I’m sure he will Side with Elon Musk.
When it looks like the FAA is anti-space, anti-tech entrepreneur, and anti-jobs…well, yea. It is a bad look for the agency.
The possible future president is likely to side with Elon Musk.
Beyond the current political undertones, the real issue is finding a balance between allowing groundbreaking advancements and ensuring safety isn’t compromised. Both sides have valid points, but perhaps it’s time for the FAA to rethink how it regulates emerging technologies in space exploration, especially with companies like SpaceX leading the way.
“Lead, follow, or get out of the way.” The FAA doesn’t lead, they won’t follow… They are just in the way. How can you professionally and ethically say that your leadership process is to lead by enforcement? What would you say about a parent who’s primary leadership method is to hammer their children when they screw up? I agree with calls for the Administrator’s resignation.
The FAA is delaying a launch over relatively trivial matters, for a period somewhere between 2 months and indefinitely. This is obviously unacceptable, anti-progress, and anti-business.
The new launches are not significantly different to previously approved operations - should be a trivial task and accomplished in days, tops.
The delays are by extension delays to a program of national significance - Artemis.
Company is shocked they are asked to comply with basic safety regulations and cries foul to politicians in it’s pay. SpaceX no different to Boeing or any other company in it’s behaviour and attitude that the rules don’t apply to them.
Innovation is not incompatible with safety - it just requires some basic governance which is anaethema to Musk. It’s all really tedious.
SpaceX didn’t screw up here. A screw up would be a spaceship blowing up. That stuff happens from time to time, esp to new platforms.
This is about SpaceX blatantly disregarding environmental and safety terms for the licensing of their launches. No more, no less.
Nothing like the Boeing situation at all - not even close.
It’s tedious for people to take this attitude because they hate Elon - who frankly isn’t the person in charge of the day-to-day at SpaceX anyway!
We can only pray for some sanity in the White House and our government in the next election.
I have no idea what is going on internally in SpaceX - it is merely their external comms we can base it on (whether from execs or senior management like Musk).
It is like Boeing in that their attitude is that they know best, and regulation is for suckers.
It doesn’t matter whether anyone personally likes managers or owners of a business - all that matters is that they adhere to the rule of law and doing no harm to innocent bystanders or residents near their site of operation.
This should be apolitical - this is just a basic tenent of a free, civilised society.
It is like Boeing in that if there is no oversight, the company thinks it knows best and starts to cut corners and costs. While we haven’t seen this with SpaceX yet, it is because there is someone looking over their shoulder.
the problem is that conservatives have been the target of the press and the administration and since musk has shown himself to be conservative, he and the company have become a target !
SpaceX, Tesla et al have and are benefitting from enormous subsidies and government contracts, mainly under liberal administrations, so I’m not persuaded that is the case.
SpaceX is doing great work. But “go fever” has consequences and a billionaire bully should not have the power to toss an administrator trying to pump the brakes in the interest of safety. Hard lessons throughout the space program history validate that
“Rules were made for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men”. Innovation and bureaucracy do not mix well.
Let’s just look at this logically:
First, Whitaker’s statements are patently false and SpaceX brought proof. That means that he was either ill-informed or lying. Either way, he is not fit for the office.