spacetoday.net: NASA asks Pentagon to check ISS for damage

Posted: Wed, Dec 3, 2003, 8:35 PM ET (0135 GMT)
ISS illustration (NASA)

NASA has asked the Defense Department to use ground- and space-based assets to check the International Space Station for any damage that may be linked to an odd noise heard on the station last week, space agency officials said Wednesday. Charles Precourt, an astronaut who is deputy manager of the ISS project at NASA, said Wednesday that NASA asked the Pentagon to use spy satellites and groundbased telescopes to look for anything that might be linked to the noise heard on the station early November 26. Precourt did not say what data the agency had received from the military, only that they had not found any conclusive evidence. The NASA Watch web site first reported Saturday, November 29, that such efforts were underway, but Precourt's comments Wednesday was the first official acknowledgment of those activities. NASA and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (formerly National Imagery and Mapping Agency) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) earlier this year regarding the use of military assets to check shuttles and stations for possible damage while in orbit; that MOU was a response to the Columbia accident, when NASA refrained from asking for the Pentagon's help to check for any damage to the shuttle while it was still in orbit.