spacetoday.net: Review finds conflicts of interest in Orion review panel

Posted: Thu, May 1, 2008, 8:00 AM ET (1200 GMT)
A review board impaneled to provide assessments of the development of the Orion crew exploration vehicle includes several members with conflicts of interest, NASA's inspector general concluded this week. Six of the 19 members of the Orion Standing Review Board were employees of companies doing work on Orion, and in several cases were also stockholders in those companies, a conflict of interest that runs afoul of federal law that governs independent advisory panels. NASA officials defended the panel, noting that there is a very small pool of qualified committee members available, and declined to suspend the six members. The agency did say it was reviewing its rules for implementing review boards.