Acting NASA chief says DOGE reviewing agency spending as hundreds take buyout

FILE PHOTO: Director of NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center Janet Petro speaks ahead of the Crew-7 mission launch to the International Space Station on the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft, at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. August 20, 2023. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - NASA's acting administrator Janet Petro said on Wednesday that Elon Musk's government efficiency panel planned to examine the space agency's spending, and noted hundreds of agency employees had accepted a government buyout proposal.

"We are going to have DOGE come. They're going to look - similarly what they've done in other agencies - at our payments and what money has gone out," Petro, who was previously the head of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, told reporters on the sidelines of a space industry conference in Washington.