"The Wrong Stuff: The Space Program's Nuclear Threat To Our Planet"


NASA Pushes Ahead With Nukes In Space While New Report Predicts More
Space Shuttle Accidents Could Occur

Karl Grossman, author of the "The Wrong Stuff: The Space Program's
Nuclear Threat To Our Planet" reviews NASA's report on the Space
Shuttle Columbia explosion and his concerns over NASA's plans for
nukes in space.

A report on the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia predicted that NASA
would suffer similar tragedies killing more astronauts if it did not
transform its quote "broken safety culture."

The report focused on both the physical errors that caused Columbia to
explode on its on Feb. 1 mission as well as the work culture at NASA.

The explosion that killed seven marked the second time in 20 years
that a Space Shuttle blew up.

Investigators determined NASA's engineering had grown careless, its
safety system was flawed, and communication within the agency was
muddled. NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe was also cited for creating
the problematic culture.

The review board determined the Space Shuttle's problems stemmed from
a problem during the liftoff when a 1.7 pound piece of foam insulation
fell off hitting the shuttle's wing at 500 miles per hour causing some
damage.

The investigators found the culture at NASA where policies and
managers were seldom critiqued led to the agency being unable to make
possible fixes after the problem occurred on liftoff. Among other
things it was reported the Agency never obtained pictures of the space
shuttle Columbia in orbit that may have displayed the extent of the
damage. Lower-level engineers requested such photo, but the requests
were ignored or blocked.

The report read "Management decisions made during Columbia's final
flight reflect missed opportunities, blocked or ineffective
communications channels, flawed analysis, and ineffective leadership."
It went on to say "Perhaps most striking is the fact that
management . . . displayed no interest in understanding a problem and
its implications."

Unless fundamental changes are put forward the board warned "the scene
is set for another accident." However the board did not call for the
permanent end to space shuttle flights if NASA followed 15
recommendations.

The board did recommend the government should spend more money on NASA
but one analyst told the New York Times, "The problem is, the program
is worthless. It doesn't involve anything worth dying for."

* Karl Grossman, the author of The Wrong Stuff: The Space
Program's Nuclear Threat To Our Planet and is a professor of
journalism at the State University of New York/College at Old
Westbury.

TRANSCRIPT

AMY GOODMAN: We're joined on the telephone by Karl Grossman. He's the
author of The Wrong Stuff: The Space Program's Nuclear Threat To Our
Planet. He's also a professor of journalism at the State University of
New York, Old Westbury. Welcome to Democracy Now!

KARL GROSSMAN: Good morning, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: Tell us your analysis of this report. You have been
reporting on NASA for decades.

KARL GROSSMAN: Well, I'm heartened that we have another commission
declaring that NASA is a bumbling bureaucracy out of control with very
minimal concern for safety. One of the lines in the report is so
telling-- NASA's organizational culture had as much to do with this
accident as foam did.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about that culture.

KARL GROSSMAN: It's a culture in which criticism is not welcomed. I
know this from whistle blowers, insiders in NASA who have come to me
through the years. Whether it's a low-level person or a mid-level
person concerned about the foam striking the shuttle in this
particular situation.
Or thousands, millions of concerns that NASA employees have. You don't
open your mouth. You don't raise a concern. This is not an agency, as
this commission report said, with checks and balances. Its report does
not have an independent safety program, has not demonstrated the
characteristics of a learning organization. That's really important.
They always talk about lessons learned. Apparently at NASA lessons are
not learned.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what you have most focused on, and
that is nuclear material in space, and what that has to do with this
report.

KARL GROSSMAN: My biggest concern since, well, it goes back to the
1980s. I broke the story in 1986 about the Challenger's next mission
to be a mission involving lofting plutonium into space. That would
have been in May of '86 if it hadn't blown up in January of '86. And
now NASA is involved in a great expansion, a sweeping expansion of its
space nuclear program. This Sean O'Keefe calls it Project Prometheus--
NASA's good at these catchy names and titles. Three billion dollars is
to be spent over the next five years on all kinds of space nuclear
projects, including a nuclear-propelled rocket. This is a scheme which
NASA spent billions on way back in the '50s, '60s, and early '70s. The
major reason this was cancelled was out of concern for a nuclear
rocket crashing back to earth. But Sean O'Keefe is gung-ho nuclear--in
fact there's a personal angle here.
In an interview with a nuclear energy trade publication, Sean O'Keefe
talks about, at the dinner table at night being regaled by stories
from his father who was in the nuclear Navy about the wonders of
atomic propulsion at sea. Then he goes on, Sean O'Keefe saying that
we're going to bring nuclear power to a new dimension above all our
heads. The L.A. Times quoted Sean O'Keefe as saying we're talking
about doing something again, this Project Prometheus, on a very
aggressive schedule. Talking about getting missions up, nuclear-
propelled rocket missions up by the end of the decade. So here you
have this agency that can shoot right in space, being charged with
negligence, serious negligence in connection with the death of the
seven astronauts on Columbia. And it goes back, this history of
ineptness, incompetence, and lack of concern for safety moving to all
kinds of things nuclear in space. And we're not volunteers. The
astronauts were volunteers, we're not. And to embark on this foolish
atomic course endangering lots of life-not to be anthropomorphic--lots
of life on earth, for this agency to do this is just horrific. And it
just must be stopped.

AMY GOODMAN: And how would you suggest that it be stopped?

KARL GROSSMAN: Well, I think critically it's important that people
know what's going on. And there's not a whisper, not a touch in the
coverage this morning or last night about--and I think it's very much
connected because this is Sean O'Keefe's big project, this project
Prometheus. And I think people have to know and thank heavens for you,
Amy, and for Democracy Now!, we're getting the word across to good
degree this morning. But I think people should write letters to the
editor, people should shake up the media, or whatever the media is
these days, in their areas and get some attention on this space
nuclear program. Then there's a very good organization that I would
suggest people connect to and that is the Global Network Against
Weapons and Nuclear Power In Space. You go to their website, it's
www.space4peace.org. I put together a number of videos on this issue
of nukes in space and you can give a call to Enviro Video at
1-800-326-8846.

AMY GOODMAN: Karl Grossman.

KARL GROSSMAN: And churches and schools and people just have to know
what NASA has been up to and what it plans to do now and how that will
be endangering all our lives.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Karl Grossman, thanks very much for being with us,
author of The Wrong Stuff: The Space Program's Nuclear Threat To Our
Planet He's a professor of journalism at the State University of New
York, Old Westbury.

.

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