Jared Isaacman

So yes, we incredibly value the support from Scott and OPM to let us go out, bring the talent back into the agency on things like turning our launch pad so we can launch with frequency, managing launch control, managing mission control.

We definitely need our partners.

We don't do this alone, but NASA's got to have those core competencies back within the agency.

Yeah, I mean, when I went to every one of the centers and started talking to the workforce and said, okay, so you work in mission control.

You're one of our contractors.

I get we treat everybody kind of the same.

Do you want to be a civil servant?

I mean, there's certain benefits associated with it.

And they're like, I've wanted to work for NASA since I was a kid.

They get paid exactly the same, but you have tech companies that put a, well, staffing companies put a 40% gross margin on it.

So the answer is about $1.4 billion a year is lost in science and discovery because someone 30 years ago or so said there's these artificial hiring ceilings on civil servants.

So 75% of the workforce became contractors.

Contractors that have been there for decades and will stay there for decades if we don't change it.

Well, so, I mean, to me, NASA is supposed to be doing the near impossible where you can't close a business case, where there's no obvious, you know, demand besides NASA.

You know, so at one point we had to open this whole thing up with, you know, heavy lift launch vehicles and propulsion design.

I mean, we, again, we're the only game in town.

That's not the case now.

Launch observation and communication, there is a market for.

I mean, that is the foundation of the space economy.

So if NASA is doing the same thing that industry is doing, we're screwing up.