NASA makes rocket scientists use an app to list accomplishments

NASA is rolling out a “weekly accomplishments app” for agency workers to track their productivity, a step toward complying with one of Elon Musk’s government-efficiency demands.

“Today, we will debut a new tool for the “Five Things” request,” Acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro told employees in an email Friday seen by Bloomberg News. “This secure, internal tool makes it easier for you to track and share the incredible work you do each week.”

Musk, who is leading the Department of Government Efficiency under President Donald Trump, surprised agency heads last month when his team sent emails to more than two million federal employees requiring them to submit their weekly achievements over email, or face losing their jobs. 

The order was part of the billionaire’s brash approach to overhauling the government — an initiative that has sown uncertainty at NASA and beyond. 

The move was widely rebuked across the government with some cabinet secretaries telling their employees to ignore the email, raising concerns that the emails could compromise national security or classified information. The White House also clarified that workers wouldn’t be fired if they didn’t respond and directed them to follow the instructions of their agency heads.

Federal workers have continued to receive weekly prompts to submit their five bullet points and instructions for how, or if, to respond have varied widely across agencies.

The weekly accomplishments app, as Petro described it, will streamline reporting and give workers a “running record” of their contributions over time.

The email comes days after NASA shuttered two offices and eliminated jobs to comply with Trump’s executive orders. The layoffs come at a time of uncertainty for NASA as it awaits the confirmation of Trump’s nominee for administrator, Jared Isaacman, who spent an undisclosed sum of his own money on two SpaceX missions and whose company, Shift4 Payments, has provided Musk’s space company with $27.5 million in funding.

In her note to the agency’s civil servants, Petro added that she will continue to submit weekly accomplishments and activities of all agency employees to the US Office of Personnel Management. 

“This tool will provide a straightforward way to share your work as part of that process,” Petro said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com