The conversation turns to the recent Mars probe failures, where Oberg's reporting for United Press International drew sharp criticism from NASA. He explains how a culture of suppressed bad news and "groupthink" led engineers to withhold concerns about fatal design flaws, drawing parallels to the Challenger disaster. A former Boeing aerospace analyst calls in to corroborate the systemic problems across the defense and space industries.
Oberg also discusses Soviet space disasters, including the failed Russian shuttle program that bankrupted their space efforts, and why the U.S.-Russian partnership remains dysfunctional. The hour opens with Peter Davenport presenting dramatic footage of a 1995 fireball over Ontario, Canada, that appears to show an object launched toward it from the ground.
Key Moments
Windsor fireball video shows projectile streaking up to meet it: Peter Davenport and investigator Amy Abear walk Art through CityTV footage from Windsor, Ontario showing a bright object rising from the ground toward an incoming fireball seconds before reports flooded in across Pennsylvania.
Oberg: NASA officials knew Polar Lander had fatal flaws: James Oberg tells Art that insiders were aware of fatal design flaws in the Mars Polar Lander before launch but said nothing, and that top NASA officials later admitted to Congress they had built a culture where bad news could not travel up the chain.
Mother Nature is a bitch: the paranoia rule of spaceflight: Oberg explains that in spaceflight you must assume the world is out to destroy your spacecraft and fight for safety at every step, citing Challenger management asking engineers to prove the cold-weather seals would fail rather than prove they were safe.
Half a billion dollars to relearn what NASA already knew: Oberg argues the Mars failures were not new mistakes but ones NASA had solved decades earlier and forgot after laying off experienced engineers, and faults the agency for refusing to identify any individual or NASA center responsible.
Space tourism as the sleeper industry, including a paid trip to Mir: Asked about privatization, Oberg calls space tourism a sleeper industry, comparing it to people who pay $100,000 to climb Everest where a quarter die, and predicts a paying tourist flight to Mir via the new MirCorp within 12 months.