Mike Gruss

Mar 9, 2025 | spacenews.com | Mike Gruss

The White House and the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency have spent the first weeks of Donald Trump’s new administration looking to reduce the number of federal workers and shrink spending. The cuts have followed roughly the same formula from agency to agency. What does that mean for space? It’s challenging to track every corner of the federal workforce that works on space, making it difficult to determine exactly how many jobs have been lost.

Feb 7, 2025 | spacenews.com | Mike Gruss

The second Trump administration has started with a series of rapid changes to how the federal government operates. Here’s what the president introduced in the last week and what it could mean for the space community. The news: President Donald Trump issued two executive orders — EO 14151 and EO 14173 — shortly after his inauguration, directing federal agencies to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and terminate diversity-focused hiring programs.

Dec 31, 2024 | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Mike Gruss |Cat Hofacker

The highest point on the Kwajalein island chain, home to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, is Mount Olympus. Rising 17.5 meters above the Pacific Ocean, it illustrates a big problem facing the U.S. military: Arguably its most vital missile, hypersonics and space surveillance venue is uniquely vulnerable to the rising seas of climate change. Is it feasible to keep Kwaj running?

Dec 16, 2024 | cdw.com | Mike Gruss

At one U.S. government agency, IT leaders faced a conundrum. They maintained large public and private data sets that they needed to make available to staffers seamlessly and without hesitation. They needed to improve the agency’s ability to process and collect data, perform queries across massive data sets quickly, and easily combine information from multiple sources.

Nov 25, 2024 | defenseone.com | Mike Gruss

As a SpaceX Starship rocket steered its way back to Earth Nov. 19 before ultimately landing in the Gulf of Mexico, President-elect Donald Trump watched from Texas alongside Elon Musk. Musk is the founder of SpaceX, the space company that handles launches for NASA, the U.S. Space Force and the National Reconnaissance Office. Following Trump’s election he is also the co-chair of the cheekily named commission, Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which is a dog-themed cryptocurrency.