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NASA Space

NASA Investigates Possible Sabotage by Worker 166

Posted by CowboyNeal from the wrench-in-the-gears dept.
mytrip writes "NASA said today it is investigating suspected sabotage of a recorder placed on the shuttle Endeavour for delivery to the space station where it will track physical stresses on the orbiting lab."
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NASA Investigates Possible Sabotage by Worker More

NASA Investigates Possible Sabotage by Worker

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  • Recorder sabotaged (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 26, 2007 @07:34PM (#20004243)
    Someone tried to play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" but discovered that one of the holes was blocked.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by __aaltii7299 ( 744901 )
      This really isn't funny, the employee of a subcontractor tried to sabotage a space station. This is huge, what this idiot did could have taken the lives of Astronauts. And while it may not be a treasonable offense, it is extremely disquieting to me. And it makes me wonder how many such incidents have gone by unnoticed. I need to know if this man or woman was a crazed Evangelical, a North Korean spy, or just a terrorist.

      The subcontractor reported the damage themselves, so it wasn't like NASA employees caught

  • Dr Smith (Score:5, Funny)

    by hedley ( 8715 ) <hedley@pacbell.net> on Thursday July 26, 2007 @07:36PM (#20004253) Homepage Journal
    Dr Smith works for a subcontractor now? That Jupiter2 gig must have finished.
  • TFA's a bit light on details but maybe someone just dropped a wrench on the thing. OTOH if it's cut wires or something like that's another story...
  • Spies could be everywhere. You must report only to us, the communist party. We want to protect you from harm, so we must know everything. Even about your parents! So, what do you know, child? Oh, woops... Wrong country. Still could be spies though! Prepare for war!
  • Brilliant Journalism!
    Two! Measly! Paragraphs!

    =/

    I know NASA might have been sketchy on the details, but I can't believe this has made its way to the front page with a few lines of text in the fine article. I know we never RTFA, but we don't have a bloody chance today! How can you get a meaningful discussion out of this?!

    Ahhhhh.
    Bye bye, karma.

  • Vague (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Joebert ( 946227 ) on Thursday July 26, 2007 @07:43PM (#20004305) Homepage
    Talk about a vague story, I bet half the comments on Slashdot in the last 24 hours have more to them than that story did.

    • Talk about a vague story, I bet half the comments on Slashdot in the last 24 hours have more to them than that story did.
      Lets not go overboard now, this is /. we're talking about here!

    • I bet half the comments on Slashdot in the last 24 hours have more to them than that story did.
      You must be new here.

  • Mothers Against Drunk Astronauts (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 26, 2007 @07:44PM (#20004319)
    More info at BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6918490.stm [bbc.co.uk] "The discovery came as an independent health panel found astronauts had been allowed to fly after drinking alcohol." Is this a joke? So all this time 'The Right stuff' was in reference to a Johnny Walker?!?
  • FTA: The recorder, which does not play a role in protecting astronauts or the space station, was damaged by an unidentified person or persons and will be repaired. No word yet on suspects, but NASA investigators said it was "peppered pretty good."

  • A better article (Score:5, Informative)

    by l33t.g33k ( 903780 ) on Thursday July 26, 2007 @07:48PM (#20004357)
    Here everybody, this one has much more info: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/26/nasa.computers.re ut/ [cnn.com]

    • Re:A better article (Score:4, Interesting)

      by emjoi_gently ( 812227 ) on Thursday July 26, 2007 @08:02PM (#20004513)
      Actually, It doesn't say much more.

      "The U.S. space agency NASA on Thursday confirmed it had discovered the apparent sabotage of a noncritical component of the international space station due to be carried up by the space shuttle Endeavour. It launched an investigation after finding cut wires in a piece of computer equipment intended to transfer data from station sensors to the ground, the agency said."

      That's about it on the topic.

      It still has the feeling of "Wha? I don't get it.". Either NASA is deliberately playing down a more serious issue, or we have some very incompetent saboteurs. Or an employee who had a momentary temper tantrum at whatever piece of equipment was in front of them.
      • Either NASA is deliberately playing down a more serious issue, or we have some very incompetent saboteurs.

        Yeah, I can't see the possible value in the act other than to a) marr NASA's image b) start a fire. Option "b" makes more sense to me in terms of having a greater potential effect. Option "a" would only work if it were part of an ongoing program of sabotage.
      • "Either NASA is deliberately playing down a more serious issue, or we have some very incompetent saboteurs."

        Third option: It's not just the pilots who are drunk.
      • Or maybe some idiot who cut the wrong wires, or it was unfinished rework, or some guy dropped his wrench and it severed a wire, or who knows. A cut wire doesn't mean intentional sabotage.
    • Or follow the story here [wikinews.org], complete with links to the source articles at Reuters, AP, etc.

  • A better Article (Score:1, Informative)

    by Reddragon220 ( 890851 )
    The BBC has a much better article that goes into the incident in detail: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6918490.stm [bbc.co.uk]
    The damage was done by a (currently) unidentified sub-contractor on a non-essential computer intended to collect and moniter data from sensors that detect the vibrations and forces on the space station's external trusses.
    • Then I ask you... Why? Or was it maybe just a test to see if sabotage could enter the ship unnoticed?

  • True (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    There have been several incidents at NASA that could only be caused by sabotage. None know to make it to the pad.

    Of course, why is this happening? Who would do it? At this point it just looks like a group that wants NASA to fail.

    I blame Thomas Dolby. ;)

    • Who would do it? At this point it just looks like a group that wants NASA to fail.

      Who would benefit most from making space appear too dangerous for civilians, and coincidentally has common contractors with NASA?

      Of course, this is utter paranoia: the current administration just isn't that subtle.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Ender_Wiggin ( 180793 )
      Ah! She blinded me with science!
  • So he's still trying to do his thing. Wonder what happened to Isis?

    Now all we need is a UFO sighting by a decorated pilot..

  • FTA:"It launched an investigation after finding cut wires in a piece of computer equipment intended to transfer data from station sensors to the ground, the agency said." If the equipment was built by an outside contractor and the cut was inside it, well, maybe it was the contractor's employee. If it was in house, cut wires would show up. I think the prelaunch diagnostics would have found it anyway.
  • In the weeks before the successful relaunch of the STS program with STS-26, we in the UK had news broadcasts about deliberate sabotage to the O-rings of a forthcoming space shuttle launch (not STS-26 and probably not 27). Despite a suspect declaring her innocence on TV, we heard nothing more about it. Maybe this will go the same way?
  • Apparently the astronauts piggy-backed a of recording "My Lipgloss is poppin'" illegally.

  • a little more info (Score:3, Informative)

    by khallow ( 566160 ) on Thursday July 26, 2007 @08:13PM (#20004651)
    Just a little more info here, but apparently they have ruled out [floridatoday.com] any connection to a labor strike that has dragged on since mid-June. A little information about what was sabotaged too:

    The computer is designed to retrieve data from strain gauges on the central truss of the space station. It was repaired and will be installed in the U.S. Destiny laboratory after it is delivered to the outpost by the Endeavour astronauts.
    • We're talking about the same NASA that got all flipped out because some engineer bought some parts from Radio Shack to meet a schedule. BUT, OMG, They are not an approved vendor! All of those superfluous paper pushers didn't get to validate their jobs by puting their stamp of approval on that 1K resistor.

      Some how I can't get too excited about this.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by khallow ( 566160 )
        Well, yes we are talking about the same NASA. It does appear to be an act of sabotage though as other posters have indicated.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by geekoid ( 135745 )
        considering NASA can get into SUBSTANTIAL LEAGLE TROUBLE for not using an approved vendor, they should have flipped out.

        That a Federal issue and it applies to all agencies.

        You do NOT want to be using a 1K resistor from radio shack on any critical systems. Those resitors tollerance will be all over the board. Hell, do they even sell gold band level a tolerance at radio shack?
    • And they also have ruled out any connection with the mis-spelling of Uranus as found in this page [nasa.gov]. One would hope that a space agency, of all institutions, would know how to spell the name of a planet. At least, they didn't post any photos of this lovely planet on there... yet.

  • Improper Use (Score:2, Funny)

    by Tablizer ( 95088 )
    It's management trying to cover their tracks [theonion.com].
         

  • Inflated title as usual (Score:3, Insightful)

    by obeythefist ( 719316 ) on Thursday July 26, 2007 @08:23PM (#20004745) Journal
    It was just damaged, probably someone dropped it and put it back in hoping nobody would notice.

    Happens all the time! Although you would hope people would be more willing to own up to that kind of thing for anything life threatening.

    I guess they never talk about the guy that dropped the o-rings while they were putting them on the shuttle, huh...

  • Other news: Fatal explosion at Mojave Airport (Score:5, Informative)

    by FleaPlus ( 6935 ) on Thursday July 26, 2007 @08:37PM (#20004847) Journal
    Between the sabotage news, the drunk astronaut news, and the following, this is looking like a pretty bad day for spaceflight:

    http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=&q=mojave+ex plosion&btnG=Search+News [google.com]
    http://www.personalspaceflight.info/2007/07/26/ [personalspaceflight.info]

    According to local media reports, there has been a fatal explosion at a rocket test stand at Mojave Airport, home to a number of entrepreneurial space companies. Two people were killed and four people were injured. The company involved hasn't been identified; according to an amalgam of the sketchy reports available so far, it involved a nitrous oxide "flash explosion" on a test stand. ... According to KBAK-TV, the explosion took place at a Scaled Composites facility at the airport, but the TV station said they didn't know yet if any Scaled employees were among the casualties.
  • I'll bet we'll never hear the follow-up, other than that they'll find a scapegoat and put them away. But not every cut wire in the world is sabotage ... for all we know someone just pruned out an unused section of a wiring harness, or something. So it would be nice to hear what the effects were supposed to be before we get too excited about those evil bastards trying to save a few grams of weight on an expensive space flight.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by geekoid ( 135745 )
      It would be very unlikely that they would snip wire and leave them exposed as part of the mission. In fact, I will say that they would never do that.

      This isn't some consumer electronic piece here.
  • Why build one when you can build two for twice the price?

    (two references for the price of one)
  • The same inspection also caught a failed AE-35 antenna control module, which was removed and replaced. The defective module was tested and found to be in perfect working order; NASA spokepeople point to human error as the cause of the problem.
  • There are certain things you never do in this world. Hold lit firecracker in your hand. Knock over a beehive. Watch news stories about celebrities who do things to be Media Attention Whores (MAWs).

    But if there is anything that you never EVER do if you want to live, it is f*ck with a nerd's computer. If you f*ck with a NASA nerd's computer, you are dead where you stand.

    Whoever this person is who has attempted to tamper with so much as a peice of recording equipment has attempted to tamper with an inter
  • One word.

    LEVIATHAN
  • But was the saboteur wearing diapers? That's all I care about.

  • I mean, they haven't found the person who did it, so far all they know, the damage could have simply been caused by gross negligence or incompetence.

    The fact that there's a serious lack of motive for this sort of sabotage suggests that this possibility may merit consideration.

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