SpaceX CEO Elon Musk
After days of feuding with the Federal Aviation Administration, Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of the rocket company SpaceX, ratcheted things up yet again. This time, he took aim at FAA head Michael Whitaker.
“He needs to resign,” Musk wrote last week on X, the social platform he owns.
Musk called out Whitaker for alleged inaccuracies the administrator made about SpaceX during an unrelated hearing the day before, where he defended delays the FAA imposed on an upcoming SpaceX Starship launch. The FAA had licensed the launch for later in November, months after SpaceX’s desired mid-September timeframe.
Whitaker said the delay had to do with permitting laws and an environmental analysis around sonic booms, which the launch could create when it attempts to return the rocket booster to earth — a first for space flight. But SpaceX claimed the situation could have been fixed by a “paperwork update” instead of a two-month delay.
The dustup was the latest salvo in an escalating battle between Elon Musk and the FAA about launch dates and fines related to alleged SpaceX launch violations over unauthorized plans. Adding another layer to the spat: Musk could hypothetically become a regulator himself. Former President Donald Trump has floated the idea of tapping Musk to run a new committee on government efficiency, should he win a second term in November. The body would perform internal performance and financial audits on the federal government. The possibility should be taken with a grain of salt, but Musk, a Trump ally, has said he’d be interested in the role with “no title, no pay.”
SpaceX’s feud with the FAA may be core to Musk’s interest in government efficiency. “Unfortunately, we continue to be stuck in a reality where it takes longer to do the government paperwork to license a rocket launch than........