MELVILLE, New York — SpaceX, the private company founded by Elon Musk, suffered a failure last week as it launched the latest model of its Starship rocket, only to see it explode less than ten minutes after liftoff. This comes on the heels of an explosion less than two months ago of their previous Starship craft.
At the same time, President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, under Elon Musk’s leadership, is reviewing the program of NASA, including the audit of NASA contracts, reduction of the NASA workforce, and suspension of advisory committees, among other things. For example, the research group MEXAG which coordinates NASA’s study of Mercury, now has a website that only says, “The MEXAG website is being reviewed in response to guidance given by NASA leadership.”
NASA has also frozen all other upcoming decisions regarding its space exploration program.
Mark D. Zimmerman is the author of Rashi, Rambam and Ramalamadingdong: A Quizbook of Jewish Trivia Facts & Fun