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."
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.
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Bloomberg adds that Musk's directive to use his own company's technology to revamp the FAA conflicts with the current contract the government already has with telecom giant Verizon.
"Just days after Malaska arrived at the FAA, the fate of Verizon’s contract is up in the air as the agency considers whether to cede part of it to SpaceX," the publication writes. "The talks are fluid, and much remains unclear, including the size of any payments SpaceX could receive. Musk’s team is moving so fast that Verizon executives are still trying to understand what’s happening inside the FAA and whether it would affect their business."
There are also major concerns about conflicts of interest as it appears Musk is using his influence as a White House official to award his own companies government contracts.
