Chinese Spying: The Moon Race Just Got Ugly

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by Vicki Hamilton from Pixabay.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has reported that the Chinese have been hacking into US government agencies since as early as 2018. One of the targets of the Chinese hacker group, known as QTFY, was NASA.

A DOJ press release from earlier today, titled Justice Department and FBI Seize Platforms Operated and Used by China State-Sponsored Hackers to Target U.S. Critical Infrastructure, stated:

Among the victims of QTFY computer intrusion activity are the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Federal Reserve, Department of Energy, Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Senate.

At this time, the nature of what was taken from NASA and other government agencies was not provided. However, given the importance of the Artemis mission for both national and commercial purposes, it is not hard to believe that Artemis information was part of the hack.

It may be to NASA’s advantage that it has been operating by the seat of its pants for more than a year now. There was no Artemis strategy to steal. In addition, much of NASA’s work is in the hands of the private sector, so that extra layer of protection may have helped.

It is worth noting that many federal agencies were spending last year fighting off internal hackers from the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which did great damage across the federal government.

The Chinese efforts have been detected and ended. I am not sure you can say the same thing about DOGE.

Audit Report: DOGE Produced Unreliable Savings Figures

Posted on by onespaceman2000

We finally have more information on what the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), being run by Elon Musk and friends, was doing (or not doing) while it was laying waste to the federal government last year.

We have learned from a recent US Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that the savings figures claimed by DOGE (1) were based on an unknown methodology, (2) exaggerated savings, and (3) represented activities that never occurred.

Here is a statement from the report summary:

  • DOGE was not transparent regarding methodologies used to calculate savings. Specifically, DOGE did not use its stated methodology to calculate the majority of savings associated with the contracts reported as terminated. For grants, DOGE did not provide sufficient information to verify the method used to calculate 96 percent of DOGE-reported savings. Similarly, the Wall of Receipts does not include an explanation of how the savings from terminated leases were calculated.
  • The Wall of Receipts includes leases identified for termination before DOGE was established. Specifically,108 of the 264 leases identified for termination on the Wall of Receipts, about $15.3 million of the total $53.5 million in savings, were already in process for termination when DOGE was established.
  • GAO’s review of selected contracts identified potential cost savings, but the basis for some reported savings is unknown. For example, DOGE reported $1.7 billion in savings on the Department of Defense’s Defense Health Agency contract for IT services at more than 700 military treatment facilities worldwide. While DOGE initially identified the contract for termination, in the end, no action was taken to terminate the contract, or to reduce scope, value, or funding. Thus, no savings were achieved.

This should come as no surprise to those closely watching the destruction last year. It was clear from the start that DOGE was not interested in the mission of government. Instead, the whole operation was mindless foolishness intended to scare away those employees who could not be illegally fired or suspended. NASA was one of the victims of the insanity, and it will take a least a generation for the agency to recover.

The whole DOGE operation was basically Twitter, Part 2. But this time it was not his own company that Musk was destroying but instead your government. It could have been done with some thought and input from the auditors who oversee government everyday, but that would require hard work, real numbers, and boring processes.

The country needed a competent surgeon, and instead it got a cocky plumber.

Any country that hands over its space industry to such a man should be having second thoughts, or at least have a Plan B.

House Report: Budget Issues at NASA

Posted on by onespaceman2000

A new released minority staff report from the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, titled MISSION ABORTED: How NASA Illegally Implemented the President’s Budget Request Without Congressional Approval, has a few issues with the budget process at NASA.

Here is the main point from the report’s executive summary:

In 2025, NASA implemented the President’s Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2026 instead of the laws duly enacted by Congress. NASA leaders denied this fact repeatedly during the summer and fall of 2025. But the evidence gathered by Committee Staff says otherwise. Without authorization or direction from Congress, and in violation of the basic separation-of-powers framework set forth by the Constitution, NASA put into effect an executive branch proposal as if it were the law of the land. The consequences of that decision – for the agency, its workforce, and American leadership in science and space – were adverse to the agency’s mission.

The 38-page report gives plenty of examples about the various missions delayed or thwarted by NASA management, such as the Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration project and the Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite mission.

Last year was a pretty horrible year overall for government programs, but we can all be thankful that DOGE did not get too far past the destruction of the US Agency for International Development before it steered into the rocks and eventually sunk. Besides, Mr. Musk would not want to attack an agency that keeps him in business.

With Jared Isaacman as NASA’s administrator, and Congress basically ignoring White House cuts, the overall damage has been contained. With that said, the scars left on agency programs and personnel will be long-lasting.

Congress will need to remain vigilant and continue to investigate and highlight any budgetary abuses at NASA should they still occur, even if it is only the minority party paying attention at the moment (though that minority status seems likely to change with elections later this year).

We will see many more such reports in the years to come, but for too many it will be too little, too late.

Space Quote: More Space Cuts, This Time in the United Kingdom

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by Sibling Yonten Phuntsok from Pixabay

“The UK punches above its weight in scientific impact and in space-related industry. This should be a national success story, but instead we are facing the possibility of unsettling and destabilizing threats to funding for cutting-edge science. STFC, the research council responsible for astrophysics, along with particle physics and nuclear physics, is expecting future budgets supporting facilities like our observatories to be just 70% of the current level, a potentially devastating cut at a time where costs are increasing. The resulting loss of jobs and reduction in roles could easily amount to hundreds of roles, spread around the country, let alone the loss of scientific opportunity as telescopes, missions and laboratories are shut down. These harms will last decades, but are imposed to make short-term budgets balance.”

-Statement by Chris Lintott, Professor of Astrophysics at Oxford’s Department of Physics, in a University of Oxford publication. This follows actions last year that folded the independent UK Space Agency back into the government bureaucracy. None of this portends well for the future of the space industry in Europe. However, similar planned cuts to the US space program – in particular the space science programs – were later reversed by Congress. One can only hope down the line the UK might similarly reverse some of these draconian cuts.

Some Good News for NASA

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by Prawny from Pixabay

Today the House and Senate came together to agree on NASA’s FY 2026 budget, and the news could not have been better. Overall, NASA is looking at basically a flat budget (compared to a threatened 24 percent cut) with only a 1 percent cut in science funding from last year’s level (compared to the threatened 47 percent cut). The only thing left on the table – or should we say on the Martian surface – is the sample return.

Of course, all of this came after the Agency gutted its personnel, threatened the remaining employees, and demoralized everyone down to the janitors. After you add to that the cancelling of science conferences, the end of student programs, and trashing of libraries and data, you can imagine the cheers are present but weak due to exhaustion.

Credit certainly goes to a House and Senate that showed bipartisan support for the maintenance of NASA and its missions. This should make the new NASA Administrator very happy as he tries to sort through the muck from earlier this year and find a path forward.

Now we just has to hope that this bill can get through the White House. Given that foreign policy is the preferred policy these days, and DOGE is MIA, it may actually happen.