--- title: "Young DOGE Engineer Now Has Access to The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Which Warns Americans When Hurricanes are Forming" description: "NOAAccess New reporting from Wired reveals that a young member of Elon Musk's non-agency the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) gained IT access to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) — the nonpartisan climate and environmental science agency that tracks daily weather patterns, warns about fast-moving natural disasters like hurricanes, and provides science-based support for America's marine commerce, among other duties. According to reporting from The Guardian and Axios, members of Musk's DOGE, which isn't a real government agency, suddenly entered NOAA's buildings in Silver Spring, Maryland, pushing past staff and demanding access to the critical agency's information and technology systems. […]" date: "2025-02-06" modified: "2025-02-06" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/doge-engineer-access-to-noaa" categories: - "Science & Energy" tags: - "doge" - "elon musk" - "NOAA" - "the digest" --- # Young DOGE Engineer Now Has Access to The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Which Warns Americans When Hurricanes are Forming ![Wired reports that a young DOGE engineer was granted IT access to NOAA, the critical weather and climate agency that tracks hurricanes.]() *\Image: Tobias Schwarz / AFP via Getty / Futurism\* ## NOAAccess New [reporting from *Wired* reveals that]() a young member of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has gained IT access to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) — the nonpartisan climate and environmental science agency that tracks daily weather patterns, warns about fast-moving natural disasters like hurricanes, and provides science-based support for America's marine commerce, among other duties. According to [reporting from the]()*[ Guardian]()* [and *Axios*](), members of Musk's DOGE, [which isn't a real government agency](), suddenly entered NOAA's buildings in Silver Spring, Maryland yesterday, pushing past staff and demanding access to the critical agency's information and technology systems. "They apparently just sort of walked past security and said: 'Get out of my way,' and they're looking for access for the IT systems, as they have in other agencies," Andrew Rosenberg, a former NOAA official and current fellow at the University of New Hampshire, told the *Guardian*. "They will have access to the entire computer system, a lot of which is confidential information." Per *Wired*, such access appears to have been granted to an engineer named Nikhil Rajpal, whose work history shows stints at both Tesla and pre-Musk Twitter. He doesn't appear to have a government background or, as *Wired* put it, "special expertise relevant to his new role." Even so, NOAA staffers were reportedly instructed to provide Rajpal with access to all NOAA Google sites by the end of the day on Wednesday. NOAA is an essential and deeply consequential government organization; Americans rely on it every day, from our most basic day-to-day weather updates and severe weather warnings to the protection of marine ecosystems and fisheries for future generations. According [to further *Axios* reporting](), DOGE has said that it's rummaging around for "DEI content" at the agency. That said, though, DOGE is seemingly operating with [next to no oversight](), and offering DEI as an excuse to gain general, sudden "IT access" to the critical, life-saving agency writ large is wildly flimsy. ## Science Who? The White House has yet to address DOGE's targeting of NOAA. But the [agency was lambasted in Project 2025](), the conservative blueprint for a second Trump Administration — a document written largely by [Russell Vought](), president Donald Trump's pick to lead the Office of Budgetary Management — as an obstacle to "US prosperity" for its role in studying climate change, and the authors argue that it "should be dismantled" and privatized. In other words, according to Project 2025, at least, NOAA's apparent transgression has been doing its job: science (with a degree of government oversight that privatizing its work and research would lack.) **More Elon Musk:** [*Public Support for Elon Musk's Government Rampage Is Falling Catastrophically, Even Among Trump Voters*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()