Sean Duffy: “DOGE Will Upgrade Our Aviation System”

First, just a bit of the Musk-FAA history:

In a Sept. 17, 2024, post on its website, the FAA said that in June 2023 SpaceX used a new launch control room for an uncrewed satellite mission that had not been approved by the FAA. It also failed to conduct a required and routine safety poll of flight controllers before the launch, according to the FAA.

The FAA proposed fines of $175,000 for each of those violations. The next month, the administration charged, SpaceX used rocket fuel from a “rocket propellant farm” that had not been FAA-approved.

That violation resulted in a $283,009 penalty. Musk hit back with his pair of X posts, and with another one on Sept. 17, 2024, warning that, “SpaceX will be filing suit against the FAA for regulatory overreach.”

Read the full article.

Musk’s long-running feud with the FAA led to the agency being without leadership during last month’s two fatal crashes.

And now, according to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the man who says the FAA is too careful about safety will be “upgrading” the agency’s safety systems.