Human failings serve as NASA wake-up call

Case of the arthritic astronaut
Another aging astronaut reportedly developed an arthritic shoulder prior to his flight. The astronaut had "difficulty raising his right arm above shoulder level," a crewmate reported to me.

"This matter was never brought up in any briefings or meetings that I recall," the crewmate continued.  "[He] flew with distinction, and his experience and expertise contributed significantly to the successful mission." Back on Earth, the astronaut had the shoulder replaced with a mechanical joint, with good results. Whether the shoulder would have proven a barrier to successfully evacuating the shuttle in an emergency was apparently an issue that NASA never tackled.

A shuttle astronaut (and physician) pointed out that crew surgeons have brought about medical "saves," in which disputes were resolved in favor of some crew members through successful treatments and other countermeasures before flight. One veteran astronaut told me that in the year leading up to launch of a science mission for which he had been on the "support crew," he was twice notified he might have to step in and fly in the place of a crew member who was struggling with a potentially disqualifying medical condition.

"In both cases, the problems were actively addressed and resolved," he reported. No medical issues arose during flight.

Another pilot astronaut gave a similarly positive review for NASA's medical team. "My experiences with flight medicine were all very positive," he said in an e-mail, "and in fact I always felt that they were very proactive in doing everything possible to work through any medical issues to make certain crew members got fair opportunities."

Bending to the breaking point
But sometimes, yet another veteran astronaut told me, the bending of the rules got to the breaking point.

"There was one instance of a shuttle commander with a flight-disqualifying medical episode that the flight surgeons 'nursed along' so that he could make one last flight and not cause the agency any 'embarrassment'" he said in an e-mail. "I have names, etc., but really cannot release them."

The independent panel behind last month's report likely heard these sorts of stories, and more. The report referred to problems with NASA's medical screening process — and concluded, as my own informal survey suggested, that such problems had not received adequate attention for a very, very long time.

"Many of the cultural and structural issues identified as problematic have existed for many years," the report noted. "The current medical and operational leadership at NASA inherited most of the cultural and structural issues identified in this report, [and] the issues are so ingrained and longstanding that it will take senior leadership action to remediate them.”

Now that the issues have reached the attention of top NASA leadership — and the attention of Congress and the public as well — that remediation seems assured. This year's painful embarrassments for NASA may prove to be a blessing in disguise, balanced against potential future human failures in space that now might, just might, be avoided.

James Oberg, space analyst for NBC News, spent 22 years at NASA's Johnson Space Center as a Mission Control operator and an orbital designer.

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