The Daily Populous Saturday March 8th, 2025 day edition
Authored by the-independent.com and submitted by xena_lawless

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A SpaceX operative has threatened Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees with termination if they stand in the way of agency work by the company, which could lead to a lucrative federal contract, according to a report.

SpaceX engineer Ted Malaska last month instructed employees at the FAA headquarters in Washington, D.C. to “immediately start work on a program to deploy thousands of the company’s Starlink satellite terminals to support the national airspace system,” Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.

Malaska, who also works as a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) volunteer, warned FAA workers that anyone who “impeded” his work would be reported to Musk and “risked losing their jobs,” sources told Bloomberg .

Malaska is a temporary special government employee, and is working for DOGE even as he retains his engineering job at Musk’s SpaceX.

He reportedly issued his directive as Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Musk is firing thousands of federal workers via DOGE. The move triggered conflict of interest concerns as Musk appears to be dismantling the federal system as his own company seeks to take over lucrative work amid an employee shortfall he is creating.

Musk has not been elected to a position, nor does he serve as one of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet members, nor has his work been authorized by Congress.

Malaska could not immediately be reached for comment, but he has touted his work on X. No one has yet been fired since Malaska’s threat, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

The federal government currently has a $2.4 billion contract with Verizon to revamp the FAA that’s now being sought by Musk for Starlink. The FAA is now reportedly “close to canceling” the Verizon deal to overhaul the system integral to supporting U.S. air traffic control and handing it to Musk’s company, according toThe Washington Post.

Bloomberg noted that administration officials are not sure how much SpaceX should receive for the directed work, given conflict of interest concerns about Musk. It’s unclear if the work by Musk’s company has officially been authorized.

It’s not the first time Musk has been in this position since his political ascendance thanks to his “best buddy” Trump.

Last month, a line item in a government spreadsheet stated the State Department planned to appropriate $400 million for Tesla armored government vehicles.

Musk quickly shut down rumors of an upcoming contract on X. “I'm pretty sure Tesla isn't getting $400 million. No one mentioned it to me, at least,” he insisted.

The word “Tesla” was quickly scrubbed from the line item, and a department official told NPR that there are currently no plans to go through with the deal.

A person familiar with the deal said Tesla and the department had agreed to conduct research into armoring electric vehicles last year but Tesla had not yet received government funds.

The discovery sent Tesla stock up some 5 percent, only to drop back down after Musk denied that a contract was in the works.

sigmmakappa on March 8th, 2025 at 05:12 UTC »

It's not called "conflict of interest", it's called corruption, plain and simple f-ing corruption.

redditsunspot on March 8th, 2025 at 04:55 UTC »

Spending $400 million on starlink terminals gets you a shitty 5 year life sat network, that you have to 100% replace every 5 years at a cost of $400+ million or it goes dead. Spending $400 million on fiber lines and ground antennas will last 50+ years or 100+ years with minimum upgrades. You can get all your strategic coverage for $400 million on the ground for 100 years. Remember, anywhere that already has electric grid lines supplying power can easily have fiber lines installed for cheap. Starlink Niche is remote areas with no grid power and the FAA does not have any locations like that across the entire country so they dont need starlink. Starlink works for ship going around the world, but is not the cost effective option for airplanes. Airplanes just use starlink for their passenger entertainment systems, not for flight controls.

A judge needs to issue an permanent injunction banning Musk from any government involvement over his conflicts of interest.

2HDFloppyDisk on March 8th, 2025 at 04:50 UTC »

This FAA "deal" for Elon is completely illegal and Verizon should sue him.