MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s effort to identify potentially dangerous space rocks has taken a hit.
On Monday, the space agency’s inspector general released a report blasting NASA’s Near Earth Objects program. The program is set up to hunt and catalog comets, asteroids and relatively large fragments of these objects that pass within 28 million miles of Earth. The purpose is to guard against their potential dangers.
Most of these objects harmlessly disintegrate before reaching Earth’s surface. But there are exceptions, like the nearly 60-foot meteor that exploded over Russia in 2013, causing considerable damage.
In a 44-page report, Inspector General Paul Martin says the NASA program needs to be better managed with a bigger staff. NASA’s science mission chief, former astronaut John Grunsfeld, agrees and promises the problems will be fixed.