Following the near-disaster that happened last week when the International Space Station (ISS) was sent off course after Russia’s new Nauka module fired up its thrusters unexpectedly. Now, a former NASA employee has lashed out at the space agency for not taking the safety of its astronauts seriously.
James Oberg, a former engineer at NASA’s Mission Control Center, wrote an op-ed in IEEE Spectrum, bashing NASA by calling it an “eroding” safety culture. He also urged for an independent investigation of the agency.
Mindset of complacency
“The safety of the system is assumed rather than verified — and consequently managers are led into missing clues, or making careless choices, that lead to disaster,” Oberg said in his article. He also claimed that the incident involving the new module is a strong example of a “mindset of complacency” at NASA that could lead to catastrophe.
“The NASA team has experienced that same slow cultural rot of assuming safety several times over the past decades, with hideous consequences,” he said.
He continued, “Team members in the year leading up to the 1986 Challenger disaster (and I was deep within the Mission Control operations then) had noticed and begun voicing concerns over growing carelessness and even humorous reactions to occasional ‘stupid mistakes,’ without effect.”
The NASA veteran and space journalist has also asked for an investigation of NASA’s safety standards. “[Because] political pressures seem to be driving much of the problem, only an independent investigation with serious political heft can reverse any erosion in safety culture,” he said.
Investigation expected
Oberg’s article makes complete sense, and NASA and other space companies should always be extra careful with their astronauts. The recent incident with the ISS could have been fatal and there could be more such incidents in the future.
Besides, Russian officials say they will be investigating any possible damage to the ISS. Details are yet to come out but the promise of investigation hints that the incident is still making waves. The Nauka module unexpectedly triggered its thrusters sending the space outpost into a tailspin. The ISS spun by 540 degrees before the situation was controlled.
