00:00Hey, Space fans, it's Tarek Malik, Editor-in-Chief of Space.com.
00:03And on this week in space, we talked all about NASA's big shutdown,
00:08part of the government shutdown, and it's worse than you think.
00:11Check it out.
00:12The story staring us down like a giant dragon
00:16that's about to flame you into cinders, of course,
00:19is the government shutdown, which means NASA's closed their business.
00:22That's right.
00:2385% of their workforce has been furloughed.
00:2615,000 people.
00:281,000 people sent home, 3,100 exempted.
00:33Now, I don't know if that means that they're working without pay
00:36they'll get later or if they're still being paid.
00:38Oh, no, they're all working without pay, I think.
00:41So if you're allowed to work, you don't get paid.
00:44I tried to do something for JPL once off hours on the weekend
00:49and got my wrist slapped pretty hard
00:52because apparently you can't donate time to NASA,
00:55but I guess this is an exception.
00:57And apparently a fairly large percentage of the accepted workers
01:01are for Artemis, which is an entirely bad thing.
01:05But I wonder if any part of the various missions,
01:11especially robotic ones, are put at any risk.
01:13Now, as you told me earlier in the week,
01:16JPL is apparently not furloughed yet because they work for Caltech.
01:19That's what I heard.
01:21So that gives me a little confidence there.
01:24But it's just not a good thing.
01:26And let me just note, China doesn't take days off,
01:31especially in things like high tech and the space trade.
01:34I'm pretty sure they would love to be still at work.
01:37Yeah, yeah, probably.
01:38Being on furlough and being on vacation on a day off
01:42are two very different things.
01:44You're getting paid for a day off for the most part, right?
01:47If it's a NASA job or anything.
01:49But if it's an enforced furlough
01:52because two sides of the government can't agree
01:54on a fundamental basic...
01:57It's like their job.
01:59They have one job,
02:00which is to keep the government open.
02:02You know?
02:03That's like the one basic thing
02:05that we have a government for
02:07is to work for the people
02:09that elected them there in the first place.
02:11But what are we going to do?
02:12We don't got to get political.
02:13But what I'd heard about JPL,
02:17and this is through the grapevine,
02:18is that while because they work for Caltech...
02:24They're managed by Caltech.
02:25They're managed by Caltech.
02:25And that's on a Caltech for NASA.
02:28Like, they can work.
02:29All the stuff that they do, you know,
02:31needs decisions from NASA, you know,
02:34and that whole side of the agency.
02:37And if you don't get that,
02:39then you really can't do anything, you know?
02:41Like, I know that on the PR side,
02:42all the releases have to get approved by headquarters.
02:45And if there's no one there to approve it,
02:46nothing is happening, you know?
02:47So there was an interesting side note to this.
02:50And that was initially on the NASA website.
02:55It said, you know,
02:56the site's not being updated
02:58because of the federal government shutdown.
03:00We apologize for the inconvenience.
03:02And then the little apology disappeared.
03:06And it just stopped.
03:07And it just said, you know,
03:08we're not being updated.
03:09And I thought that was kind of interesting,
03:11you know, that they would at least acknowledge
03:14that it was an imposition for the American people.
03:18And then they removed it.
03:20But, you know, I don't know how that happens at NASA, so.
03:23Well, apologies are not a hallmark of our current era.
03:27So perhaps they thought, well, that's a little too much.
03:32Yeah, it's, you know, if you're working for NASA,
03:36which I kind of wish I still was,
03:39you've had a hard year.
03:42I think it's fair to say you've had a very challenging year.
03:46And this is just, you know.
03:50And it's not over yet.
03:51The couple on top of the wedding cake looking very chagrined.
03:55A couple of things about this shutdown,
03:56just to let our listeners and viewers know,
03:59is, as Rod mentioned,
04:0185% of the workforce is on mandatory furlough,
04:04which means that they can't,
04:06it's not only that they can't work,
04:07it's they can't actually even open email
04:09or anything related to their job at all.
04:13And so of those 3,100 who are exempted,
04:17so of the 18,000 full workforce,
04:19there's 3,000 folks that are still working.
04:22We did get assurances last week
04:24at the Artemis II stand-ups that NASA had
04:26that Artemis, the Artemis program,
04:29and the workers on that flow for Artemis II are accepted.
04:34It's deemed one of those essential services.
04:36As is, you know, core mission control positions
04:41for the International Space Station.
04:42Remember, there's a full crew of astronauts
04:45on the International Space Station right now.
04:48Government shutdown or no, you know.
04:51So those astronauts, their jobs are essential,
04:53so they get to, you know, continue their job.
04:55The same thing for mission control,
04:57as well to keep the space station in good shape.
05:00And any other types of support,
05:01cargo launches, that kind of thing,
05:03will be supported as part of that.
05:05Also, most military launches and services
05:10for, like, launches for the U.S. economy
05:13are deemed essential.
05:14So there might be some delays,
05:16but NASA and Blue Origin are planning
05:18to launch the Escapade mission to Mars
05:20later this month as we're recording this.
05:23That should still continue.
05:25We were told about a mid-month campaign
05:27for that on a new Glenn rocket.
05:30So you can expect to see that.
05:32Will it be webcast with commentary?
05:34Probably not.
05:35Those are the types of things that you will not see.
05:37Because those guys are sitting at home.
05:38But I checked, I checked,
05:40and you can actually still get live video
05:42from the International Space Station via YouTube.
05:44It's just there's no commentary or anything like that
05:46that the PAO would normally do.
05:49So one wonders, I mean, you know,
05:51I play devil's advocate here
05:53because I'm glad Artemis isn't getting shut down
05:55for reasons we discuss probably every week on this show.
05:58But what makes that essential
06:01and so many other things non-essential
06:03other than political desires?
06:06I think that's the case.
06:08Now, in the case of the International Space Station,
06:10you get it.
06:10There are human lives at stake.
06:12Yeah, no, I get that.
06:13It was Artemis specifically.
06:14Artemis too.
06:15I mean, I think there's one thing
06:16that you and I can agree on,
06:17as well as all of our listeners,
06:18is that the agency as well as U.S. leadership
06:22have made it pretty clear
06:23where they stand on a U.S. return to the moon
06:26and China in particular
06:28and the importance of getting there first
06:31in the 21st century.
06:33And so they've made it kind of like the priority
06:38for NASA as an essential service.
06:41And it's that type of an approach.
06:42I think that a lot of lawmakers
06:44have called it a national security matter.
06:46And we heard that echoed.
06:48In the leadership discussions
06:49that we saw last week
06:51during the Artemis 2 stand-up
06:53from Sean Duffy
06:55at the astronaut announcement too.
06:57I'll be damned is what he says, right?
06:59So apparently even during a shutdown.
07:03Well, we don't have the story on here
07:04and we got to go to a break.
07:06But I did notice that somebody,
07:10shoot, I can't remember who it was,
07:12had introduced the notion
07:13of some kind of movement
07:16within government circles
07:19to move away from SpaceX's Lunar Lander
07:23and probably towards Blue Origins.
07:26But let's circle back to that.
07:27That's right.
07:28Thank you for supporting it in that information.
07:30You're welcome.
07:30That's fun.
07:33Thank you for starting now.
07:34Thank you for listening.
07:34Bye-bye.
07:35We will see you next week.
07:35Bye-bye.
07:37Bye-bye.
07:38Bye-bye.
07:38Bye-bye.
07:40Bye-bye.
07:40Good
07:53Bye-bye.
07:53Look at that.
07:54Bye.
07:54Bye-bye.
07:54Bye-bye.
07:54Bye-bye.
07:55Bye.
07:56Bye-bye.
Comments