Musk Allies Made FAA Staff Sign NDAs to Keep New Project Secret

Source: The Rolling Stone

Musk Allies Made FAA Staff Sign NDAs to Keep New Project Secret

Andrew Perez and Asawin Suebsaeng
Fri, April 25, 2025 at 5:52 PM EDT 6 min read

Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been spearheading a multi-million dollar communications project at the Federal Aviation Administration, the agency that regulates the nation’s air travel, and employees roped into it have been forced to sign non-disclosure agreements, sources with knowledge of the situation say.

The situation fits into some broader patterns: Musk and DOGE have expressed significant influence over what happens at the FAA, which regulates Musk’s space company SpaceX. And as GovExec reported Thursday, Donald Trump’s administration has required employees involved with the Veterans Affairs Department’s plans to fire tens of thousands of workers to sign NDAs.

The world’s richest man and DOGE have overseen mass firings and purges across the government, including at the FAA. At the same time, Musk has offered SpaceX’s services to the agency, providing thousands of terminals from its satellite internet business, Starlink. Two months ago, The Washington Post reported that Starlink was jockeying to replace Verizon on a $2.4 billion contract with the FAA to upgrade its systems for managing America’s airspace. Rolling Stone reported last month that FAA officials had recently ordered staffers to find tens of millions of dollars for a Starlink deal.

A watchdog group, the Campaign Legal Center, last month requested that the Department of Transportation’s inspector general investigate whether Starlink’s business transactions with the FAA violate conflict of interest rules, given Musk’s role with the administration.

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Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/musk-allies-made-faa-staff-215203305.html