NASA employees in Artemis Spacex tasks to work through closure

NASA requires the employees participating in Artemis tasks with SPACEX and Blue Orige contractors to stay in the job while the government is suspended, CNBC learned.

Kelly Elliot, the chief human capital official in NASA, wrote in an e -mail to employees on Wednesday that their work would not be paid during the closure, but employees must register their time. NASA employees are expected to receive their salaries after reopening it.

In a separate note on the two, NASA’s head of financing for NASA, details of the tasks that will be supported during the closure.

Shin wrote that NASA will continue to support the “planned operations” of the International Space Station, as well as any Satalian mission “in the operations stage.” He added that NASA will support “artemis operations during any financing”, including employees and contractors working on these projects.

Shane said that NASA will feel about 15,000 people and ask about 3,000 employees to continue to work, part -time or full -time, during the closure.

US the government close It started early on Wednesday morning, which controls Leave Among the hundreds of thousands of federal workers and the closure of a number of major programs and services. Government employees who are considered “necessary”, such as TSA employees and air traffic controller are required to continue work.

On WebsiteNASA describes as a campaign “to send astronauts to explore the moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build the basis for the tasks that were created to Mars.” Notes this week are not called contractors associated with the various Artemis tasks.

Spacex, which is emerging before Elon MuskShe won the main contracts of Artemis with Rockket Starship, the longest and strongest missile that has ever launched. SpaceX has transported the full missile system in the stars race on 10 test flights since April 2023, and plans to take another procedure On October 13. The previous stars test trips included five failures, partial failure and four successes.

Blue origin, owned by the founder of the Amazon Jeff BezosNASA staff told CNBC that work on Artemis is another, and Lunar Lander will also continue during the closure.

Artemis III, scheduled for 2027, will be the first to include Spacex directly. The task will land NASA astronauts in the Antarctic region of the moon.

NASA early ARTEMIS tasks included working with Lockheed Martin and Boeing To design, build and analyze missiles, then buy the missiles that the agency owns directly. With Artemis II, which is scheduled to aim at early 2026, NASA aims to send four astronauts around the moon without landing before returning to Earth.

The ARTEMIS IV+ HLS goal, with Spacex, is to place astronauts at the first lunar space station, helping NASA and its partners to prepare for a human mission in the end to Mars. Artemis v is expected to include blue origin.

Spacex or Blue Orige has not finished their Lunar Landers design, and yet they have yet built test devices.

NASA, Spacex and Blue Orige representatives did not respond immediately to request a comment. One of NASA said that the agency was “closed due to the expiration of government financing.”

“I am on vacation, so I cannot respond to your message at this time,” said the letter from Sherrill Warner, head of news at the NASA Communications Office.

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