When NASA and two private companies announced this week that they would be launching astronauts by 2017, safety was scarcely mentioned.The nation's most authoritative space safety group has just weighed in, calling NASA less than candid. The group said NASA is putting up absolute barriers to sharing information about the very survival of the astronauts. The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel is an independent group that constantly acts as a watchdog over NASA.  Its new report said the watchdogs are being shut out of the safety process, and that you can't fix what you don't know about.Private space companies are struggling with safety. Orbital Sciences had a rocket explode last year when it used cheap, decades-old Russian-built rocket engines. A Virgin Galactic pilot killed in a spaceship accident over California. Now astronauts are slated to climb aboard Boeing's CST-100 capsule and SpaceX's Dragon. But the safety panel can't find out whether the ships have any potentially fatal problems.Private companies don't have to talk to the public. But they do have to talk to NASA, and NASA, by law, has to talk to the safety panel. Top video: Firefighter helmet cameras capture rescue of three childrenThe panel said that's not happening. WES 2's Dan Billow asked NASA for a response, and got a statement from Administrator Charlie Bolden that said safety is NASA's top priority. Anniversaries this week of U.S. space disasters bring reminders that safety concerns were swept under the rug, the watchdog said. America's space safety watchdogs are warning that if it happens again, no one will find out until it's too late.Images: 29 years later, Challenger remembered