Pilot who fell linked to NASA theft probe

Houston Chronicle ^ | November 19, 2002 | TERRY KLIEWER and RUTH RENDON

[Marianne]

Ping

[trussell]

This is too weird. You would think the idea of that far to fall would convince the man this was a bad idea.

It's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden impact at the end!!!

[snopercod]

ROFL! Your killin' me...

But I think you have missed the obvious scenario: Alien Grab.

Filer will probably turn up in a few days complaning that he was sexually abused by his captors in unspeakable ways...

[snopercod]

What is this "possibly sensitive space program data"?

Information that NASA didn't want made public regarding all the malfunctions, screwups and political BS on the Space Station, perhaps?

Maybe Filler was going to write a book, similar to Dragonfly, which would put the program in a bad light.

[snopercod]

Thanks. Fascinating story.

[anymouse]

Filler worked in Mission Control on the computer systems. There might have been sensitive technical data and password access info. on the laptop (note: per procedure it should not have sensitive info.).

If he had been compromising NASA sensitive data, that might be the bigger fear of getting caught than just getting pinched for receiving stolen goods or even actually stealing government property. Loosing your job and doing a few years in jail is one thing, but doing life for espienage is a whole nother level of consequence for bad career decisions.

My guess from what other people that knew him better say is that he really loved working at NASA and if his story is true that he simply bought a hot laptop and got caught. The thought of his dream career going down in flames was just too much for him to bear.

[anymouse]

Shush, don't tell the secret NASA death review techniques. :) You know how hard it is to recruit new NASA employees. Now they will never fall for the "it's just a short management review meeting" ploy. :)

[Scully]

Sorry Fred, I was away on business. Yes, this certainly would qualify as an X-File, particularly since they now have a body and a laptop.

[snopercod]

Espionage? How is that possible? We give the Russians access to every possible piece of information about the shuttle. At KSC, the Russians (and all foreign nationals) had free access to all areas, and I assume it's the same at JSC. (Of course, that was during the clinton mal-administration.)

Or maybe you are thinking of another country perhaps? Japan is building a shuttle, and China is probably not far behind. Are you thinking of industrial espionage?

But the only thing that I know of on the shuttle which would be "classified" (in the legal sense) would be the KG-whatever crypto box on the S-Band system (Panel 3A?).

And there is no way that any of those codes could be on a laptop, so I am assuming that the information is of an embarassing nature, not national security.