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Elon Musk's Extracurricular Antics Reportedly Spark a NASA Safety Probe At SpaceX (techcrunch.com)
The recent interview Elon Musk conducted with Joe Rogan, where Musk took one puff from a marijuana cigarette after a lengthy conversation around AI, social media and space, is prompting a NASA safety probe at SpaceX. The Washington Post reports that NASA was not amused with Musk's antics and has "ordered a safety review of SpaceX and Boeing as a response to the colorful chief executive's shenanigans," reports TechCrunch. From the report: In an interview, NASA associate administrator for human exploration, William Gerstenmaier, told the Post that the review will begin next year and would examine the "safety culture" of both Boeing and SpaceX. Rather than focus on the safety of the actual rockets, the Post said that the review would look at the hours employees work, drug policies, leadership and management styles, and the responsiveness of both companies to safety concerns from employees. The review is going to be led by the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance within NASA, which has conducted similar probes before, according to the Post report.
According to the NASA official, the process could be "pretty invasive," with the potential for hundreds of interviews with employees at every level and across all locations where the companies operate. At stake is the potential $6.8 billion in contracts the two companies received in 2014 to revive crewed missions to space. SpaceX grabbed $2.6 billion from NASA for the program, while the remainder went to Boeing. In a statement given to the Post, SpaceX said, "We couldn't be more proud of all that we have already accomplished together with NASA, and we look forward to returning human spaceflight capabilities to the United States."
According to the NASA official, the process could be "pretty invasive," with the potential for hundreds of interviews with employees at every level and across all locations where the companies operate. At stake is the potential $6.8 billion in contracts the two companies received in 2014 to revive crewed missions to space. SpaceX grabbed $2.6 billion from NASA for the program, while the remainder went to Boeing. In a statement given to the Post, SpaceX said, "We couldn't be more proud of all that we have already accomplished together with NASA, and we look forward to returning human spaceflight capabilities to the United States."
My last company was supporting boards for the aerospace industry. They have all sorts of odd triggers when it comes to anything to do with "drugs."
For some reason we didn't have to drug test our line workers that produced the product, but we did have to certify that the people who repaired the product with audited drug tests. Well it turns out to be one guy in our whole company who had to pee in a cup. I offered to do it with him even though I had nothing to do with manufacturing because I thought that was unfair. But it never went anywhere.
Elon can be hip as he wants, but if he wants those sweet sweet government contracts he has to behave. If something goes BOOM down the line when it wasn't supposed to there is nobody at NASA who wants to report to the subsequent investigation that they weren't keeping tabs on vendors.
NASA is spending American tax dollars to investigate a company's employees' off hours activities - based on the CEO participating in a legal activity; at least in California.
What a waste. No wonder NASA can't get a man to the moon anymore.
Boeing knows that hair testing their crew would be very ungood for them.
This is the feds smacking ol' Musky on the nose with a newspaper for stepping out of line. The last of the drug warriors haven't died off, but are butthurt as fuck.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
SpaceX has done what NASA and Boeing have been unable to do. The "fuck it" culture works, apparently.
That's a good idea, because Musk has a joystick that he uses to remotely pilot each launched rocket, and must always have his wits about him to insure that the rockets don't crash and burn. Sorry, but this is just a bit ridiculous on NASA's part.
Better known as 318230.
Frankly, it's his/her body, and what they do with it off the clock is none of my fucking business. If they know the risks, I don't see this as worse than a doctor who rock climbs or races motorcycles as a hobby.
SpaceX is so far ahead with recycling rockets (= lower launch cost & better margins) that the incumbent rocket contractors appear to have pulled some strings to attempt to slow them down or discount them from the running. Someone needs breathing space to catch up.
In a better world you'd spend 100% of your time focusing on innovating and improving technology instead of wasting time fighting the status quo.
Three years later he got a stack of about four ring binders from the committee that followed up on his casual note. Skipping to the punch line, they concluded, "they can not mark them because updating the assembly and verification documentation would be too expensive".
Is there any wonder, SpaceX runs circles around NASA when it comes to efficiency?
Remember every dollar "wasted" by the government is a dollar earned by someone who did not deserve it. We know NASA wastes tons and tons of money. The defense contractors are getting it. That cash flow is getting threatened. They will retaliate like this.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact