NASA Under Review by Elon Musk’s Efficiency Panel

By Joey Roulette

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – NASA’s acting administrator Janet Petro announced on Wednesday that Elon Musk’s government efficiency panel is set to review the agency’s spending. She mentioned that hundreds of agency employees had accepted a buyout proposal from the government.

“We are going to have DOGE come. They’re going to look – similarly to what they’ve done in other agencies – at our payments and financial disbursement,” Petro, previously head of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, stated to reporters at a Washington space industry conference.

When asked about the number of NASA employees who accepted the Trump administration’s buyout plan, she confirmed it was “hundreds.”

The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, headed by SpaceX CEO Musk, has shaken up the federal bureaucracy by reviewing government payment and personnel systems to cut perceived excessive federal spending.

SpaceX holds about $15 billion in contracts with NASA, primarily for ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station and for lunar missions using the Starship vehicle.

Regarding potential conflicts of interest due to Musk’s leadership of DOGE, Petro emphasized that “we have very strict conflict of interest policies,” assuring that the agency’s legal office would vet any DOGE employees for such issues.

A select group of Trump administration officials is already reviewing NASA’s science and space mission programs, which comprise the agency’s annual budget of approximately $24 billion. Petro has been assigned to implement Trump’s executive orders aimed at cutting government diversity initiatives.

“All the officials in charge are really trying to wrap our heads around all the executive orders as they’re flying at us,” Petro remarked.

NASA’s flagship program to return humans to the moon is currently in limbo, with Musk and Trump discussing potential missions to Mars.

For DOGE, NASA’s over-budget moon rocket, the Space Launch System, is likely a target for cost reductions, although its workforce is concentrated in Republican-majority states, presenting complications for these goals.