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SpaceX engineers brought on at FAA after probationary employees were fired

SpaceX engineers were said to be simply touring the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday. In fact, some were already being onboarded at the agency under a policy designed to increase “employment opportunities for people with disabilities.”

On Sunday, Sean Duffy, secretary of the Department of Transportation, which oversees the FAA, announced in a post on X that SpaceX engineers would be visiting the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Virginia to take what he positioned as a tour. In a Department of Transportation all-hands meeting late last week, Duffy responded to a question about DOGE's role in national airspace matters, and without explicitly mentioning the new employees, suggested help was needed on reforming Notice to Air Mission (NOTAM) alerts, a critical system that distributes real-time data and warnings to pilots but which has had significant outages, one as recently as this month. Though initial findings suggest complex equipment and communications issues possibly played roles in the disaster, President Trump was quick to blame “DEI,” railing against a decade-old program that helps the FAA identify talent among populations with disabilities.

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