FAA employees threatened with termination if they 'impede' SpaceX takeover: report

[James48]

Source: Raw Story, Bloomberg

Bloomberg is reporting that members of the Federal Aviation Administration have been threatened with termination if they act to "impede" a takeover by SpaceX, the private space exploration firm owned by billionaire Elon Musk.

According to Bloomberg's sources, SpaceX engineer Ted Malaska last month came to the FAA's headquarters in Washington D.C. and gave employees what he described as a directive from Musk himself to "immediately start work on a program to deploy thousands of the company’s Starlink satellite terminals to support the national airspace system."

(Snip)
Furthermore they were given 18 months to complete this task and were told that they would be reported directly to Musk should they impede progress on it. Musk is not an elected official nor a Senate-confirmed cabinet official, and it's not clear what authority he has to fire federal employees.



Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/elon-musk-faa-2671272881/

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Jesus- they show up one day, and tell the FAA that they are taking over, and replacing Contracted Verizon with STARLINK stuff.

Can you say illegal? I can.

[2naSalit]

1. Ha!

Except for their dedication to air traffic safety, they should walk out on that prick.

All air travel will stop.

[Bengus81]

2. Wonder if Verizon just rolling over or filing a lawsuit?

Why would they give up a $2B contract? Yeah...it's called a contract.

[BrianTheEVGuy]

16. Verizon is large, powerful and connected

They’re not going to just walk away from a multibillion dollar contract without some sort of quid pro quo.

[hlthe2b]

3. If this occurs, it will only be a matter of time before a major disastor occurs. The only question is

what size and how many catastrophes and deaths would be required to make it clear this cannot be the future? At least not now. Hell Europe and other regions will not allow their planes to fly here if there is less ATC oversight.

[PatSeg]

4. What the hell???

They just do whatever they want and who is going to stop them?

[William Seger]

5. Congress needs to hold His MAGAsty responsible for everything Musk does

... and impeach him for Musk's illegal actions and blatant corruption.

[DENVERPOPS]

7. Fat chance

in your dreams......................

[William Seger]

12. It NEEDS to be tried REGARDLESS of the chances -- resistance includes refusing to normalize

If Democrats don't at least TRY to hold someone accountable for what's happening, then they aren't doing their job or upholding their oaths.

[drray23]

13. How ?

Democrats can not initiate any investigation since they don't control any committee nor can they bring any bill on the floor for a vote since it's up to the speaker. Only thing they can do is call press conferences, go on interviews on TV to denounce it or Alternatively do that from the floor of congress.

[William Seger]

18. Any member in the House of Representatives may introduce a bill at any time

... by simply placing it in the “hopper” at the side of the Clerk's desk, and then it goes to a committee. Give me one good reason why Democrats shouldn't do at least that. At the least, forcing Republicans to put their own name on approving what Musk is doing might mean that some of them won't be back in the next Congress.

In the end, Democrats need to TRY to impeach this asshole simply because they took an oath to support and defend the Constitution! I don't accept the low probability of success as a good reason to just give up on that duty.

[drray23]

21. Sure but this is where the bill will end.

The commitees will vote them down or the speaker override it and decide not to bring it on the floor. That's why it's critical we control the house.

[DENVERPOPS]

6. More and More,

Trump and Musk are catapulting us back to the days of the Robber Barrons of the Gilded Age, piece by piece.......

FDR put regulatory agencies in the Federal Government to make sure that never happened again....and here we are.

This is the reason the Repubs loathe FDR, and are going all out to obliterate any and all regulatory agencies with Initials.....

[AmericaUnderSiege]

8. I feel bad for most people caught up in this.

SpaceX employees signed up because they want to explore space, not fasc-i-muh-size America. This is so evil and ridiculous.

[LiberalArkie]

9. Ans the wonderful rainfade in heavy storms for the StarLinks. Plane trying to land in heavy storm and the FAA

looses the signal to the radars and adjoining ATC centers.. Ahh No problem.. Loss of life is inherent in the system. And Just think of the money Elon will make replacing the ultra reliable redundant wireline special circuits.

[turbinetree]

10. I fully understand that the employees cannot just walk off the job.........

I will say this until it happens every commercial aviation CEO in this country that does business in aviation should tell that orange hair asshole...............and that illegal asshole from south Africa...............were done...............until you put the south African on his private jet and fly him and his fucking doge BS out of the country...........we will not endanger the flying public we cannot afford lawsuits if something happens with this shit show and you keep the Verizon contract.......................that punk is more narcissistic than the orange hair one is...........JFC.............

[PortTack]

11. So a federal agency is taken over by a private company and that's okay?? WTF?

[Exp]

14. Holy FUCK !!! nt

[dalton99a]

15. Deport the Nazi parasite

[yellow dahlia]

17. Since the DOJ has been kidnapped, who can arrest muskRAT?

Citizen arrest?

[SomewhereInTheMiddle]

19. I think this is Musk's endgame - privatize all functions of the Executive branch except contracting ...

The Congress appropriates funds (from deficit and tariffs?) for public services. The Executive Branch decides which private company will be paid to provide those services - likely very badly - and no one checks to see the "contracts" are actually carried out.

It's an oligarch's paradise.

Pretty much hell for everyone else.

[maxrandb]

20. Watching corporate America fight over who gets to kiss Donnie Dipshits ass is fun

It's like watching Hitler fight Mussolini.

Don't really care who wins, just want to see a lot of injuries.

At some point, you'd think corporations would reach a level of diminishing returns.

[Hotler]

22. Who put the penny in the door?