The Joint Hit Heard 'Round The World Cost Taxpayers A Cool $5 Million

Wrong. 

On October 15, 2019, Politico took an ax to that narrative. Though marijuana may be legal in California, where the podcast took place, lighting up remains a violation of federal law. Consequently, Musk partook in an evidently illegal activity—a clear violation of the businessman’s security clearance as a government contractor. This fact prompted NASA to initiate a mandatory review of SpaceX’s workplace culture. Employees were interviewed and educated on federal drug policies to ensure their proper compliance. When it was all said and done, Musk’s weed-infused escapade ended up costing a whopping $5 million.

That will undoubtedly go down in history as the single most expensive puff of marijuana ever inhaled. Yet, rather than allow the multi-billionaire businessman to pay for his own mistake, NASA had other plans. Bafflingly, they chose to effectively reimburse SpaceX for the security review, passing the check to the American people. That’s right—taxpayers footed a $5 million bill for what amounted to SpaceX’s own grown-up version of D.A.R.E.® 

And to be clear, NASA’s decision to pay a company for its own security review is largely unprecedented. In fact, the revelation struck industry insiders as highly unusual. According to one official, “it would be odd for NASA to pay a contractor millions to tell its employees not to do drugs.” But that’s exactly what happened. Now, the eyebrow-raising incident has left many asking why NASA would make an exception for SpaceX. For those paying close attention, however, NASA’s decision to cover for Musk’s aerospace firm shouldn’t be too surprising. They’ve done it before. 

In 2015, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 suffered a catastrophic failure, destroying $118 million worth of cargo headed for the International Space Station in the process. Following the incident, NASA conducted an investigation to determine the cause and potential ramifications from the crash. Per the organization’s standard practice, NASA was set to publicly release the report upon completion. But rather than potentially embarrass SpaceX by finding it at fault, NASA decided against a public disclosure of the investigation’s results and allowed Musk’s personal investigation, which blamed a supplier, to rule the day. This was a seemingly unprecedented move from NASA, which had publicly released reports of mishaps from SpaceX’s competitors in similar circumstances. Apparently, in NASA’s eyes, SpaceX warranted an exception. 

For more recent proof, look no further than NASA’s response to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon debacle. In 2014, NASA initially contracted SpaceX to build and launch reusable shuttles to transport both crew and supplies to the International Space Station. Five years later—and two past its deadline—SpaceX still hasn’t delivered. What’s more, the shuttle’s current iteration is woefully unreliable. This year alone, the Crew Dragon has experienced two monumental setbacks. In March, the craft’s parachute system failed, causing it to crash in the ocean upon reentry. Then, in April, the shuttle experienced a critical failure during launch, resulting in the entire capsule erupting into flames. 

Surely, NASA has realized the error of its ways, and is scaling back SpaceX’s involvement in the program going forward, right? With any other contractor, perhaps that would be the case, but with SpaceX, think again. Instead, Musk received a scornful tweet from Jim Bridenstine, the Administrator of NASA, highlighting the delays that the Crew Dragon program has endured. Then, only a few days later, the two made amends, with NASA announcing that once again, it was “very confident” in SpaceX. 

Clearly, NASA is allowing Elon Musk and SpaceX to play by a different set of rules. And while NASA may be content to fund Musk’s bad behavior and poor performance, the American taxpayer shouldn’t be. Whether SpaceX’s rockets are failing to meet deadlines or their CEO is breaking federal law by smoking weed, NASA is allowing the company to waste millions of taxpayer dollars. Americans must demand better than SpaceX is providing us. And if the company can’t perform, its due time NASA find a contractor that can.