#Politics #NASA From #NYTimes:

"Even before Donald J. Trump was re-elected, his best-known backer, Elon Musk, had come to him with a request for his presidential transition.

"He wanted Mr. Trump to hire some employees from Mr. Musk’s rocket company, #SpaceX, as top government officials — including at the Defense Department, according to two people briefed on the calls."

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/06/us/politics/elon-musk-trump-benefits.html

#Politics #NASA #SpaceX #Trump

From #ArsTechnica:

"Musk is unquestionably in a position for self-dealing. Normally, such conflicts of interest would be frowned on within a government, but Trump has already shown a brazen disregard for norms, and there's no reason to believe that will change during his second go at the presidency."

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/11/space-policy-is-about-to-get-pretty-wild-yall/

#Politics #NASA My two credits' worth ...

NASA's bureaucracy has been bloated, hidebound, and inbred for far too long.

NASA was originally intended to be a space version of the old National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. NACA was a think tank for developing technologies to transfer to the private sector. NASA was supposed to do the same for space, until JFK created Apollo as a global propaganda organ. (1/x)

https://www.nasa.gov/history/history-publications-and-resources/nasa-history-series/naca-to-nasa-to-now/

#Politics #NASA

Apollo created a space-industrial complex that motivated members of Congress to protect NASA legacy employees and infrastructure in their districts and states.

#Obama tried to change that but suffered terrible political blowback as a result.

Backed by Elon Musk, will #Trump try to return NASA to its NACA roots?

I doubt Trump knows, much less cares, what NACA was. But Elon sure knows. (2/x)