Some of the so called fat in government is good business for Elon Musk.

Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, is taking on the task of reducing government spending. Many folks have said that he could start with his own lucrative contracts from NASA for his Space X company.

Maybe, for all his billions, he could volunteer to pay, out of pocket, for the Space X resupply missions to the International Space Station.

While I am a fan of science, I've been less of a fan of the Space Station. The space station seems to provide less science per dollar spent than other missions; like for instance the Voyager Missions launched clear back in the 1970s and still sending data back from the outer edges of the solar system.

The space station has been going for a long time and costing NASA quite a bit of money. It has some interesting science, such as something called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer - AMS-02. There is other science onboard including Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER); which I follow somewhat and basically like.

I'm one of the rare breed that follows science more than what billionaire football teams are doing on the football fields. I know more about the stars in the sky than I do about the stars in Hollywood.

I think robotic missions tend to do more interesting science, per dollar spent, than missions with people on board.

Challenges can be useful, however. In it's later years, NASA's need to keep resupplying the space station has provided funding and incentives for companies; like Space X to innovate and fill that need. That has helped to get Space X's systems going so it has now branched out as part of the accelerating private space launch industry.

I use to have more respect for Musk, but his more recent reckless thoughts on X (formerly Twitter) cause me to hear that engineers run his companies and all but ignore the kooky billionaire at the top.

Can he streamline the government? I'm not holding my breath.