Mike Whitaker, the previous FAA administrator, stepped down on Inauguration Day after just over a year on the job. He’d repeatedly clashed with Elon Musk — now in charge of a group tasked with slashing the government’s headcount by President Donald Trump — over safety issues at his space company,

The leader of the Federal Aviation Administration stepped down from his position mere months after billionaire Elon Musk demanded that he do so, meaning that the FAA is missing a chief in the aftermath of the worst aviation disaster in the US in years.