On March 7, for the second time in a row and the second time since President Trump was elected, the redesigned SpaceX starship exploded — or, as SpaceX put it in a sublime example of Orwellian Newspeak, the starship had a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.” Plus, according to the New York Times, it is probable that the same problem that caused the first explosion caused the second one. Yet, the U.S. pays SpaceX billions of dollars for government contracts. I don’t know whether any taxpayer dollars were used to fund the rocket. Even if not, given the latest failure, how about putting SpaceX contracts under DOGE’s axe? Only that, for Elon Musk’s personal use and benefit, “DOGE” means Department of Government Extravagance.

Sheila Zakre

Concord