FC: NASA's secret shuttle launch time -- exposed on website

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

---

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2002, Issue No. 27
April 3, 2002


**      NASA SHUTTLE SECRECY: A WORK IN PROGRESS
**      DOE SETS PENALTIES FOR SECRECY VIOLATIONS
**      SECRECY IN THE NEWS


NASA SHUTTLE SECRECY: A WORK IN PROGRESS

The utility of the new NASA policy of keeping the Space Shuttle launch
time a secret is being called into question after one NASA contractor
published the launch time of an upcoming Shuttle mission on its web site
late last week.

Along with various other mission characteristics, Spacehab Inc.
disclosed the launch time for STS-107, a July 2002 flight of the Space
Shuttle Columbia that is considered particularly sensitive since it will
be carrying an Israeli astronaut.

The incident was described in "Slip-up reveals sensitive shuttle launch
time," published in Spaceflight Now on April 1:

     http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0204/01sts107/

Allen Thomson, a space policy expert who spotted the inadvertent
disclosure of the launch time, said it illustrates the limits of a
security policy that is based on secrecy.

Critics argue that the whole notion of withholding the launch time of a
Shuttle flight to the Space Station is illusory and pointless.  See "New
NASA security plan lacks teeth" by Irene Brown, United Press
International, April 1:

     http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=01042002-074038-5284r




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/
To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Politech dinner in SF on 4/16: http://www.politechbot.com/events/cfp2002/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------