spacetoday.net: NASA reassigns shuttle official

Posted: Tue, Jun 27, 2006, 8:03 AM ET (1203 GMT)
Camarda, Charles (NASA)

NASA abruptly reassigned an astronaut who had been serving as a key official with oversight of the safety of the pending shuttle mission. Charles Camarda, who flew on the STS-114 shuttle mission last year, had been working since last fall as the director of engineering at the Johnson Space Center, a position that made him a member of the mission management team (MMT) that will oversee the STS-121 shuttle mission scheduled for launch on Saturday. Camarda revealed in an email memo Monday that he had been "fired" from that position because he refused tor relinquish his seat on the MMT, and had been reassigned to a position with the NASA Engineering and Safety Center. The events that led to Camarda's reassignment were not immediately clear, and both NASA and Camarda declined to comment on the issue with the media. In his memo, Camarda wrote that "I cannot accept the methods I believe are being used by this Center to select future leaders." Camarda will be replaced by Steve Altemus, deputy director of engineering at JSC who last month was named as director of a new engineering office at KSC.