Dysfunctional Communications At NASA

Opening Statement By Chairman Mark Udall – Hearing on Health Care of NASA Astronaut Corps

“Whatever the merits of focusing the agency’s attention on trying to get employees to publicly verify or refute reports of alcohol use that those employees had provided in confidence to the independent review committee, I think it runs the risk of unintentionally worsening a communications environment at NASA in which, to quote the independent review committee: “Peers and staff fear ostracism if they identify their own or other’s problems.” Instead, it may be more appropriate to take the “disconnect” between what is being said in private and what is being said in public by NASA personnel as another indicator that the broader issues raised by the independent review committee warrant close and sustained attention.”

Opening Statement By Committee Chairman Bart Gordon – Hearing on Health Care of NASA Astronaut Corps

“To my way of thinking – and with all due respect to Administrator Griffin – disparaging a finding in the independent review panel’s report as an “urban legend” doesn’t do much to encourage that needed openness…especially when the chair of that same independent panel is prepared to testify that the finding is based on voluntary interviews with eyewitnesses to the incidents.”

NASA Accused of Deriding Drinking Report, AP

NASA Accused of Deriding Drinking Report, AP

“NASA’s boss, Michael Griffin, went so far last week as to call the claims of prelaunch astronaut drunkenness an urban legend, likening it to alarming but false reports of deliberately poisoned Halloween candy.”