{"id":530911,"date":"2025-10-27T10:28:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T10:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/530911\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T10:28:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T10:28:14","slug":"elon-musk-spat-shows-issues-facing-us-agency-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/530911\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk spat shows issues facing US agency \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

US president Donald Trump<\/a> is determined to beat China<\/a> to the moon \u2013 and then to Mars. Yet if anyone in Beijing were truly anxious about America\u2019s progress, they might be reassured by the events of recent days. <\/p>\n

The public spat between Elon Musk<\/a>, whose SpaceX business is Nasa<\/a>\u2019s most important contractor, and Sean Duffy, US transport secretary and acting head of the space agency, may look like a clash of egos. In reality, it is merely the latest symptom of the disarray engulfing Nasa and its ambitions.<\/p>\n

For the past nine months, the US space agency has been operating without a permanent leader. It has been struggling to cope with thousands of departures forced by Musk\u2019s so-called department of government efficiency, a proposal for dramatic cuts to its science budget and the uncertain future of many programmes on which international partnerships rely.<\/p>\n

Now it appears to have become the focus of a power struggle over its leadership, and its status as an independent agency.<\/p>\n

It began on Monday with Duffy\u2019s declaration that SpaceX<\/a> was falling behind in its contract to adapt its Starship rocket into a lunar lander capable of taking astronauts to the surface of the moon by 2027. <\/p>\n

Addressing a theme dear to Trump\u2019s heart, Duffy insisted that the only way to beat the Chinese \u2013 who aim to land taikonauts on the moon by 2030 \u2013 was to reopen SpaceX\u2019s contract and invite new bidders.<\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s riposte was swift. \u201cSpaceX is moving like lightning compared to the rest of the space industry,\u201d he posted on his social media platform X. <\/p>\n

\u201cStarship will end up doing the whole moon mission. Mark my words.\u201d<\/p>\n

But when reports emerged that Duffy had suggested Nasa could be integrated into the department of transportation, Musk snapped. <\/p>\n

Duffy\u2019s proposal looked like a naked power grab. It came even as speculation mounted that Jared Isaacman, the billionaire who has twice flown on Musk\u2019s rockets, was back in the running to lead Nasa after his nomination had been pulled abruptly in May. (The last time Musk turned on the administration, Isaacman was one of the casualties.)<\/p>\n

So with the leadership of his biggest customer in contention, Musk got personal. \u201cThe person responsible for America\u2019s space program can\u2019t have a 2 digit IQ,\u201d he posted. <\/p>\n

Calling the secretary \u201cSean Dummy\u201d, the SpaceX founder asked followers to take a poll that alluded to Duffy\u2019s record as a champion lumberjack athlete. <\/p>\n

\u201cShould someone whose biggest claim to fame is climbing trees be running America\u2019s space program?\u201d Musk asked.<\/p>\n

This may all seem rather entertaining, if childish. But the spat is doing nothing to resolve the deeper crisis over Nasa\u2019s direction and credibility.<\/p>\n

While Duffy may be correct that Starship is running behind schedule, he failed to mention that the entire Artemis programme \u2013 Nasa\u2019s mission to return astronauts to the moon \u2013 is also running late, and not just because of delays to SpaceX\u2019s lunar lander. <\/p>\n

Veteran space reporter Eric Berger of Ars Technica noted that vital kit such as the lunar space suits would not be ready in time. No point landing humans if they can\u2019t walk on the surface.<\/p>\n

As for Nasa\u2019s target date of 2027? <\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost nobody believes in that date,\u201d said Greg Autry, the administration\u2019s nominee for Nasa finance director, in an interview for the FT\u2019s Tech Tonic Mission to Mars podcast last month.<\/p>\n

Part of the problem is that Nasa has taken a vastly more complicated route to send its astronauts to the Moon, combining SpaceX\u2019s Starship lander with the agency\u2019s own over-budget and much-delayed Space Launch System. And while the US programme stumbles from one delay to another, China is still talking about its 2030 target.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a neck-and-neck race,\u201d Autry told me last month. \u201cThe Chinese solution is much simpler \u2013 less capable in a lot of ways than our initial moon plans, but very practical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the government shutdown and radical budget proposals have left Nasa adrift and demoralised. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen hurricanes, seen shuttle crashes. I\u2019ve never seen the entire agency \u2013 top to bottom \u2013 freaked out like they are now,\u201d said Keith Cowing, a former Nasa scientist currently running the news site NasaWatch. \u201cThey don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

With such turmoil it is difficult to see how Trump will fulfil his ambition to plant the stars and stripes on the moon before China lifts its five-starred red flag. Without clear leadership, there can be no plan. And without a plan, there can be no mission. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US president Donald Trump is determined to beat China to the moon \u2013 and then to Mars. Yet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3844],"tags":[1395,32,295,874,70,413,124535,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-530911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-china","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-elon-musk","11":"tag-nasa","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-space","14":"tag-space-x","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115445662135563846","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}