Says Allowing Company To Lead Probe Was Not SOP

NASA Inspector General Paul Martin released a report Tuesday critical of the way the agency handled the investigation of the loss of a SpaceX Dragon cargo vessel carrying supplies to ISS in June of last year.

In the report, Martin said NASA has deviated from "existing agency risk classification" procedures. "In practice, NASA has treated all commercial resupply missions as the lowest level risk classification irrespective of a mission’s value and relies primarily on its commercial partners (SpaceX and Orbital) to evaluate and mitigate launch risks," the report states. "As a result, risk mitigation procedures are not consistently employed and the subjective launch ratings the Agency uses provide insufficient information to NASA management concerning actual launch risks.

"In addition, NASA does not have an official, coordinated, and consistent mishap investigation policy for commercial resupply launches, which could affect its ability to determine the root cause of a launch failure and implement corrective actions."

The report also was critical of the investigation. It said that allowing SpaceX to lead the investigation into the loss of its booster and capsule could lead to "questions about inherent conflicts of interest".

The Wall Street Journal reports that, according to SpaceX, the company-led investigation was very thorough, looking at every system and tracking down every failure. The spokesman said that multiple government representatives approved the findings.

According to the report, the NASA IG's office says that in order to maintain the efficacy of the ISS and ensure delivery of cargo in a timely and affordable manner, "we recommend the Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations ensure the ISS Program (1) incorporates the risk of limited availability of the Adapter into risk management processes; (2) continues to refine the unpressurized upmass manifesting process and considers preparing alternative unpressurized upmass payloads in the event scheduled payloads cannot be launched; (3) quantifies overall mission risk ratings and communicates the risks for upcoming launches early and in coordination with varying levels of engineering and management; and (4) reviews all investigation authorities and plans during commercial launches with NASA payloads to ensure they are standardized.

"To clarify the division of roles and responsibilities in the event of a mission failure, we recommend the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance, in conjunction with ISS Program officials, (5) improve coordination with other Federal agencies involved in commercial space and (6) update NASA procedures to include commercial space launches with NASA payloads in official mishap policies.

“NASA concurred or partially concurred with five of the recommendations and described corrective actions the Agency has taken or will take to address them. Those recommendations are resolved and will be closed upon completion and verification of the proposed corrective actions.”

However, NASA did not concur with the recommendation to quantify overall mission risk ratings and communicate the risks for upcoming launches. “Therefore, the recommendation is unresolved pending further discussion with Agency officials,” the report said.

(Image from file)

FMI: IG Report