Steve Rader, an engineer who spent 36 years at the Johnson Space Center, held a retreat for departmental leaders at his Houston home before leaving NASA. Since 2021 he led an open-innovation office to bring outside ideas and talent into NASA. The early days of Elon Musk's Department of Government Affairs (DOGE) created an atmosphere of sadness and paranoia, with employees fearing firings and many considering departure. Daily communication shifted to Signal as people sought private contact. An email offered more than 2 million federal employees the option to resign while still being paid through September amid rumors that the president planned huge cuts to NASA spending. Leaders avoided discussing personal exit plans to prevent influencing others.
Not long before he decided to leave NASA, Steve Rader, an engineer who spent 36 years at the Johnson Space Center, held a retreat for leaders in his department at his home in downtown Houston. It had been a trying few months for Rader and his team. "I will say, I don't cry a lot," he tells me in a recent phone call. That changed after Trump took office. "You can ask my wife, from the first few months I cried."
But in the early days of Elon Musk's Department of Government Affairs (DOGE), the atmosphere inside the agency was heavy with sadness and paranoia. Everyone was thinking of leaving, afraid they were going to be fired, or both. "It was crazy," Rader says. "Every day, some new person would be like, 'Oh, just message me on Signal.' It became the de facto way people talked."
By the time Rader met with his leaders last winter, an email had already gone out offering more than 2 million federal employees, including those at NASA, the option to resign while still getting paid through September. Rumors were swirling that the president was planning to impose huge cuts to NASA spending. At the same time, no one was really talking at work about their own plans. "I think leaders especially didn't want to influence other people into leaving," Rader said.
Collection
[
|
...
]