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Internet Policies

NTRS Is Online Again – Sort Of

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
March 26, 2013
Filed under , , ,

Keith’s note: If you are outside the NASA firewall and try to access NTRS you still get this notice:
“The NASA technical reports server will be unavailable for public access while the agency conducts a review of the site’s content to ensure that it does not contain technical information that is subject to U.S. export control laws and regulations and that the appropriate reviews were performed. The site will return to service when the review is complete. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”
But if you try to gain access internally and are a civil servant or contractor you can register and then gain access. But wait, wasn’t access by contractors supposed to have been the problem in the first place? Why doesn’t a warning appear on the screen that tells contractor employees who are citizens of “China, Burma, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan” not to bother?
– Why Has NASA Banned Access to its Partner Saudi Arabia?, earlier post
– NASA Technical Reports Server Mysteriously Taken Offline, earlier post

Keith Cowing

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

20 responses to “NTRS Is Online Again – Sort Of”

  1. Andrew_M_Swallow says:
    March 27, 2013 at 1:03 am
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    A recent news report about a Chinese former L-3 engineer who got 6 years for illegally exporting details of sensitive U.S. military technology to China.
    <url>

  2. Gonzo_Skeptic says:
    March 27, 2013 at 1:07 am
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    A recent news report…

    Looks more like somebody’s blog page.

    • Andrew_M_Swallow says:
      March 27, 2013 at 2:34 am
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       Looks like a newspaper clipping site.  Here is the original story from Reuters.

      http://www.reuters.com/arti…

      • Gonzo_Skeptic says:
        March 27, 2013 at 3:08 am
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        You have to wonder why L-3 would allow a Chinese national access to sensitive information.

        It’s also strange that he was arrested while bringing the information INTO the U.S.  Why didn’t he just wipe it off his computer before then?

  3. Gonzo_Skeptic says:
    March 27, 2013 at 1:05 am
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    But wait, wasn’t access by contractors supposed o have been the problem in the first place?

    It’s “Security Theatre”.

    A big show to appease the critics but it does not address the fundamental problem.

  4. Johnhouboltsmyspiritanimal says:
    March 27, 2013 at 1:31 am
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    everything that ends up on there used to go through the DAA (export control process) for release so not sure why there is even the need for an audit.

    • kcowing says:
      March 27, 2013 at 1:35 am
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      This is mostly pointless – especially removing access to all of the NACA stuff from the beginning of the last century. Then again, doped canvas biplanes were used as weapons at one point.

      • Andrew_M_Swallow says:
        March 27, 2013 at 3:50 am
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         Unless they want to make sure that no more countries can make V2 and Scuds.

        • kcowing says:
          March 27, 2013 at 10:35 pm
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          Have you looked at the business end of North Korea’s rockets?

          • Andrew_M_Swallow says:
            March 28, 2013 at 2:22 am
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             Exactly.

            Plenty of other countries have governments that hate the USA but do not have rocket making facilities, yet.

          • kcowing says:
            March 28, 2013 at 12:23 pm
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            Seriously – the Korean launch vehicles use the same steering vanes as a SCUD and SCUDs are advanced V2s.

          • Andrew_M_Swallow says:
            March 28, 2013 at 12:57 pm
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             What I think you are saying is that the V2 is a 70 year old design and therefore out of date.  So it can be shown to anyone.

            What I am saying is larger versions of the V2 can still kill so be careful to whom you show the plans.

  5. Alex Pline says:
    March 27, 2013 at 11:28 am
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    The point of the registration is that it goes through an approval workflow where the user is vetted for the proper attributes. Not sure why you are harping on this as this process is SOP for any restricted site/application.

    • kcowing says:
      March 27, 2013 at 10:34 pm
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      Duh. Didn’t they do this before the “problem” emerged? What is different this time around?

      • Anonymous says:
        March 28, 2013 at 1:47 am
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        Because NTRS was developed with the intent that it not be a  restricted site/application.

        http://www.nasa.gov/open/pl…

        Among other quotes:

        “This allows the work that NASA does to be transparent and for public users to actively put the research and development to use commercially or in their private lives.”

        • Anonymous says:
          March 28, 2013 at 8:45 pm
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          Additional quote:

          “Following the loss of NASA’s Space Shuttle Challenger and crew in 1985, the NASA Lessons Learned program was formulated to assure that NASA’s key knowledge is documented and made available to everyone, both the public and NASA personnel.”

          and 

          “Following the loss of NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia and crew in 2003, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board was convened to identify underlying causes of the accident. The Board determined that NASA’s organizational structure and culture prevented it from being a learning organization….”

          I guess that’s all been forgotten.

  6. Anonymous says:
    March 27, 2013 at 1:09 pm
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    “The Congress hereby declares that it is the policy of the United States
    that activities in space should be devoted to peaceful purposes for the
    benefit of all mankind.”

    Somebody should really change the charter.

  7. Robert L. Kelley says:
    April 2, 2013 at 2:37 pm
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    Has anyone successfully gotten access this way?

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