NASA Checking Report Records Were Destroyed
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WASHINGTON — NASA said today that it is investigating an anonymous allegation that copies of weekly notes in some files at Marshall Space Flight Center were destroyed after the space shuttle Challenger exploded Jan. 28.
“The office of inspector general and the presidential commission are investigating the allegation, and appropriate action will be taken as soon as the facts are ascertained,” the space agency said.
NASA said it was informed on Thursday by William P. Rogers, chairman of the presidential commission investigating the accident, that the commission had received an anonymous letter alleging that the destroyed material consisted of “documents pertaining to weekly engineering reports on solid booster problems.”
Disclosed by Paper
The receipt of the letter was first disclosed by the Chicago Tribune. The newspaper said the commission’s investigators confirmed that some documents had been destroyed long after NASA ordered all accident-related documents impounded.
Marshall Space Flight Center at Huntsville, Ala., has charge of all propulsion systems for the shuttle, including the solid booster rockets.
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