DOGE Has Arrived at NASA

Astyanax

Well he's finally arrived.

In an email from Acting Administrator Janet Petro to employees, she said that DOGE had arrived at NASA.

“DOGE Presence: The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has arrived onsite at the agency. We anticipate that they will start reviewing our contracts to find efficiencies,” Petro stated in the Feb. 14, email obtained by Spectrum News.

Elon Musk is the head of DOGE and is also the founder and CEO of SpaceX, which has a number of contracts with NASA, including the space agency’s Commercial Crew Program where people are transported to and from the International Space Station.

px_eliezer_

Astyanax

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope faces potential 20% budget cut just 4 years after launch

The scientists behind NASA's largest and most powerful space telescope ever built are bracing for potentially crippling budget cuts, and the observatory is only halfway through its primary mission.

The team overseeing NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been directed to prepare for up to 20% in budget cuts that would touch on every aspect of the flagship observatory's operations, which are managed by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Maryland. The potential cut comes even as the space observatory is more in demand than ever before, with astronomers requesting the equivalent of nine years' worth of Webb observing time in one operational year.

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/james-webb-space-telescope/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-faces-20-percent-budget-cuts

Astyanax

px_eliezer_

With it being 20 years late and 1000% overbudget they should be thankful that's all that's happening.

MacLeech

px_eliezer_ I guess that news didn't make enough headlines when it was announced a month ago:
https://spacenews.com/jwst-facing-potential-cuts-to-its-operational-budget/

It's actually ALL of Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) operations that are looking at a 20% budget cut. Besides JWST, it includes Hubble, Chandra, Nancy Grace Roman, and others.

Those scopes are often used for astroid surveys, if one is found to have a decent chance of earth impact like the recent 2024 Y4. The older data stored in their MAST project is also used to firm up astroid orbit projections and possible impacts. So, cutting the STSci budget also cuts tracking NEOs and reduces reaction time to possible impacts.

Also, this budget was proposed before Trump even took office, so it’s not really a DOGE artifact.

px_eliezer_

MacLeech I guess that news didn't make enough headlines when it was announced a month ago:

I spend probably 2-3 hours every day on news, but there is so MUCH of it these days.

And so much of it cancels out the prior news (the Alice in Wonderland world we're stuck in right now, such as who started what war etc), that no, I didn't see that. 😃

MacLeech

px_eliezer_ oh it’s not you, a bunch of publications just released articles on the proposed STSci cuts, mainly covering the JWST angle. Not sure why it was a sudden glut the last few days when the story originally hit over a month ago. Hubble’s budget cut article group hit a couple weeks ago and Chandra was reported to be shutting down because of the cuts 10 months ago.

Even the “DOGE arrived at NASA” story is a couple weeks old, occurring before the 10% NASA staff cuts stories and retractions of last week.