Is Someone Fiddling With Don Pettit's Blog? Still No Answer.
Reader note 31 Jan: “The following relates to previous discussions on NASAwatch about what text, pictures, items, etc belong to NASA and which belong to the astronauts themselves. I really have been enjoying reading Don Pettit’s blog at Air & Space about his life on the ISS. It appears that NASA or someone has censored his blog. His blog entry “Remove before Flight” posted yesterday 1/3/0/2011 is no longer available. Try: this original link and it comes back with nothing. If you enter this into Google, you will see Google’s cache of the post: cache:http://blogs.airspacemag.com/pettit/2012/01/30/remove-before-flight/ . I’m also attaching an image of Google’s cached page in case the Google cached page disappears.”
Keith’s 1 Feb update: I am still waiting for a NASA PAO response. I have also requested the original image of the “CAUTION” tag so that we can see what it says.
Keith’s 6 Feb update: Well, it has been a week and JSC PAO has said nothing. This is what I have learned behind the scenes. Fact is, JSC PAO did not have a role in this – at first – since they were out of the loop until the blog post was deleted and inquiries started. The Astronaut Office ordered the removal of this post. Don Pettit’s blogs were being sent directly to Air & Space magazine without prior approval by the Astronaut Office or JSC PAO – just as Ron Garan’s postings to “Fragile Oasis” had been handled throughout his entire mission. The Astronaut Office saw this post by Pettit, thought that it was unacceptable, and told Air & Space that they had to take it offline. The post remains offline with no reason given as to why it was unacceptable or what could be done to make it acceptable. (you can still read it here) Now, JSC PAO hopes that I will get tired of beating this issue and then move on. JSC PAO is also afraid that if the whole story got out that the Astronaut Office would be made to look bad. So, if JSC responds formally to my request you can rest assured that they are not telling the whole story.
Its too bad that control freaks have gotten the middle of this. Pettit (and Garan before him) are unusually good at relating their experiences to wide audiences at home. Now these long-term ISS residents will have official worriers from the Astronaut Office sitting in a cubicle trying to make sure that the fresh and unfiltered nature of these blog postings never sees the light of day.
Pettit’s blog is without a doubt the best astronaut blog I’ve ever read, I love his candid, truthful descriptions of life on-orbit.
I imagine the post in question was removed since it details what is obviously a missed pre-flight check (not removing the tag). While for sure it shouldn’t have happened, it is a part of the history of the ISS Program, a history that people both have a right to know, and that should be used as an example to learn from in the future , not buried and covered up.
Burying problems, even though a missed tag is a minor one, never makes things better. Any safety issues are much better talked about than covered up.
As the old saying goes, you can’t white wash history. I am disappointed that NASA would censor Pettit’s amazing outreach work, that should be being used as a shining example to all of what ISS outreach should be. Oh well, back to descriptions of experiments and sunrises I suppose (not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s no scratch on Pettit’s descriptions, that really capture the “character” of the ISS like no-one else has done before).
Also, why does Pettit have to go to A&S to blog? I know NASA re-publish his A&S blog, but they should be hosting it in the first place – and featuring it prominently on their home page.
I am waiting to see what NASA PAO says about this …
thanks for the coffee-in-the-nose on this one, keith…how many months do you have to wait?
Maybe they just didn’t want to spoil the surprise for the next astronaut who opens the panel! Of course the more likely explanation is that like many if not most agencies and large corporations, anything with even the slightest potential for liability must be communicated only through official channels, preferably with a lawyer or two to approve it. Unfortunately this policy can also be used as an excuse to cover up incidents like this. Allowing a mere “worker” to talk openly about even small mistakes just makes them too squeamish. It’s a sign, albeit a subtle one that an organization has tipped away from service providing and more towards self-preservation. Not that that is a shock to anyone.
Interestingly, some posts now appearing on Pettit’s NASA blog do not appear on his A&S blog.
There is one control freak in particular in the JSC flight crew ops directorate office….the shame is that astronauts like Pettit are so much more educated and experienced and can relate so much better to the taxpayer and the student, and instead they have the uneducated, inexperienced psychophants in charge and squelching the brilliance of a Pettit. This sort of bureaucratic censorship belongs in the the 20th century Soviet Union, not in the 21st century USA.
A positive note – Don Pettit is still doing what he does best. A new video of his experiments with knitting needles of different compositions.
http://www.youtube.com/watc…
Reader note: FYI: The tag at the heart of Don’s blog post is located on an RPCM. The tag is installed because there is a locking feature on the RPCM bolt that prevents the bolt from backing out (it’s installed using just the one bolt). If you put a standard socket on the bolt, it will fit, but it will damage the aforementioned locking feature. The caution tag lists the part number of the required tool, warns about the potential damage to the locking feature, and has installation/removal notes. As Don mentioned, it’s an information only tag.
Her Royal Highness, Queen Peggy the 1st strikes again.
Oddly, a photo of the tag in question has been in the public domain since October last year – although unknowingly to the astronaut office, and everybody else.
In the image linked below, Mike Fossum is seen replacing an RPCM in the Lab Forward-Starboard endcone area back on 18th October last year. Look real closely at the bottom-most RPCM on the left hand side of the image, and you can see a yellow tag attached to it, with a red tie-wrap, just like the one in Don’s image.
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov…