A US federal agency is investigating allegations that NASA鈥檚 inspector general ignored safety violations in the space shuttle programme and retaliated against whistleblowers.
The probe, revealed by the Washington Post on Friday, is based on numerous complaints from space agency employees and former employees made in documents submitted to investigators and in interviews with the newspaper.
The newspaper reports a string of accusations made against NASA Inspector General Robert Cobb. These include that he allegedly:
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聲 undermined safety efforts and stifled or ignored concerns about a malfunctioning self-destruct procedure during a 2002 space shuttle launch
聲 failed to report to the US Commerce Department the theft of an estimated 1.9 billion dollars鈥� worth of data on rocket engines by a hacker who accessed the Marshall Space Flight Center鈥檚 computer system
聲 quashed attempts to learn why funding to improve deteriorating launch pads and other shuttle infrastructure was cancelled prior to the February 2003 Columbia disaster
聲 disregarded his mandate to prevent waste and fraud, punishing staff members who raised questions and suppressing internal investigations of wrongdoing
The probe is being carried out by the Integrity Committee of the US president鈥檚 Council on Integrity and Efficiency and is led by Chris Swecker, a top official in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Cobb was appointed to his post at NASA by President George W Bush in 2002 after serving as an ethics lawyer for a year in the office of the White House General Counsel.
Cobb told the Washington Post he would 鈥渃ooperate fully鈥� with the investigation but would not discuss the allegations. 鈥淚 am proud of, stand behind and am accountable for the work of the Inspector General,鈥� he said.
The investigation comes amid lingering concerns about the safety and utility of NASA鈥檚 space shuttle flights, with critics charging the agency has mismanaged the shuttle programme.
