NASA’s Public Relations Nightmare
Published on Feb 8, 2007 at 11:21 am.
3 Comments.
Filed under NASA.
So, is the NASA public relations office up to the task? You know what situation I am talking about.
Personally, I think that they don’t always handle things the best way possible. But, science as a whole has poor public relations. Part of that may be that many of the people in PR departments don’t understand the science that they are trying to promote. Those that do understand the science don’t seem to get where the public is. They explain things the way that they’d have liked to hear such things before they became a scientist. But, that doesn’t work, because they were interested in science even then, and much of the public is basically scientifically illiterate. So, their work goes unheeded. You can say the same things about space exploration. Now, NASA does better than most, but still they could do better.
Part of the problem is that Nowak is an astronaut. There’s been a lot of talk about how NASA used government funds to fly people from Houston to Orlando to check up on the situation, and how this is not the way that the government normally deals with employees who get into trouble. After all, if a mailman or park ranger were to drive across the country and get arrested, their supervisors wouldn’t fly across country in a government jet to see what’s up.  But, let’s not pretend that an astronaut is the same as any other government employee. They are not. They are a select few. A LOT of people try to become astronauts, and few are selected. They are highly trained, and not easily replaced. So, they get special consideration. Also, being astronauts, they are far more in the public eye. If NASA had not responded in the way that they did, then there’d be criticism of that. It is a no win situation for the agency.
So, let’s look a moment at Lisa Nowak. She’s innocent until proven guilty. I’ll grant that. But a few facts are indisputed, and those facts seem to show someone who had a melt down. She snapped. More information is coming out about her private life. She had recently separated from her husband of nearly two decades. That would be hard for anyone. Clearly there were problems with the marriage for some time before. Being an astronaut is a high stress and dangerous career. Add to this that her husband works at JSC in Mission Control, and even when separated, she’s still working with him — a situation that is likely to add to her stress. Such emotional turmoil makes rational thought tough. Then, she had an infatuation with another astronaut. I’ll leave it at that for now, since I don’t know what was going on, whether they had an affair or if it was all in her mind. I know in my own life, that in matters of the heart, I don’t always act rationally, and I’ve even been known to act pretty stupidly. Of course, in my craziest moments, something like this would never even enter my mind. My stupidity has been mostly limited to a couple of ill advised phone calls or emails and words that were not helpful and that I wish had not been said. But, I don’t suppose that is all that uncommon. What Nowak did was way over the line, and shows vastly poor judgement — far worse than a few unkind words spoken in anger.
Later today, NASA will hold a press conference to answer questions about astronaut selection, training, and psychological evaluations. They are reviewing how they handle such things. Were there signs that she was about to snap? They have a psychologist at JSC available to the astronauts. Astronauts are not regularly evaluated psychologically past the selection process, so they are looking at that. But, they are sticking by the premise that help was available to her if she needed it. All she had to do was ask.
But, that is the problem. There is a stigma attached to psychological problems. Look at what was happening in her life. That is enough to throw most people for a loop. Very intelligent and higly motivated individuals seem to have more than average difficulty dealing with emotional crises. So, she could have used help. But, asking for help would have meant admitting that the situation was beyond her ability to handle herself. And that admission is inconsistent with what it took to get her to where she was professionally. Worse, the events in her private life could easily lead to depression. If diagnosed with depression, then that goes on her medical report as a mental health issue. That would be the end of her astronaut career. Now, anyone who has experienced depression knows that with treatment you can perform as a perfectly normal individual, and can handle all the kinds of crisis situations that anyone else can do. But, still she would be grounded if prescribed any antidepressant drugs. So, there is clearly a disincentive for her to have sought help that may have stopped the slide before melt down state.
This is a really sad situation. I feel sorry for everyone involved. Nowak’s career is clearly over. After such phenominally poor judgement, she’ll never be let anywhere near a spacecraft again. Oefelein’s astronaut days are likely over, too. Look at how all the talk shows and comedians are going on about this. Look at the media coverage. If he were to ever fly again, the media would be reporting that “William Oefelein, the astronaut that Lisa Nowak …”. NASA wants to put this behind them, for obvious reasons. He will always be tainted by this situation, and so he can never fly again without the media rehashing the whole sad tale. And, of course, Shipman, who was a low ranking Air Force officer, someone who likely would never have achieved national fame, is now known all over the world as the object of such a bizarre event. Again, if astronauts had not been involved, the local news would have covered the story, but it would soon have blown over. But, looking at the statistics for my blog, the last few days I’ve had many, many hits from search engines with “Colleen Shipman” as the search term. She’ll always be known for this. This makes a mess of her life, too. And, NASA is trying to fight for funding, and all the news is about the strange tale of two of their astronauts’ personal lives. There are no winners. Everyone loses. And that is really sad. All those involved deserve our prayers.
-Astroprof
Astronomy Buff - Lisa Nowak, Would You Be My Valentine? on February 12, 2007 at 6:56 pm: 1
[…] Now, people are saying terrible things about you. Bloggers are going crazy. AstroProf was morally offended by your plan, and later lamented that it would signal a decline of NASA’s funding for future space exploration. […]
Thomas C. on February 14, 2007 at 10:54 am: 2
If I had been in Colleen Shipman’s shoes I certainly would have handled this different. Soon as I found out Nowak’s identity I would have dropped police charges. Went to the Navy Commander (personnable Shipman’s boss) and explained the whole situation. The Navy Commander could have contacted NASA and between the two agencies decided how to handle a highly public situation. After all, all three people involved are in the Navy. Shipman should have allowed these two agencies to punish Nowak. By making this a big thing Shipman is responsible for destroying many lives. Even though Nowak was acting crazy, I think, I would have realized she had snapped and needed professional help. I would have thought about all the fallout because of Nowak’s profession and notoriety. I definitely would have thought of what it would do to the children of both Oefelein and Nowak. But Shipman wouldn’t have gotten all the attention she did if she had quietly went about this different.
First thing Shipman did (before the ink had dried on police report) was run and call Mr.Oefelein, he in turn ran to his superiors, ask for 30 days emergency leave to be by Shipman’s side. I’m not placing any blame on Shipman, it’s obvious Nowak that’s crazy but it still makes me think about how stable at making sound decisions Shipman is. Maybe getting all this attention was worth it to Shipman.
I think Nowak and Oefelein were involved in an affair while he was involved in another affair, maybe more, who knows. I agree with article his career is over.
B.Howe on March 7, 2007 at 4:46 pm: 3
I am blown away by the “explicit” emails between Oefelein and Shipman, and the media’s ability to exploit them so quickly. However, I think it’s hysterical that she calls her boss a jack*** in this exchange. Do you think she’ll suffer ill repercussions from her private email being splattered on the web with these kinds of derogatory smears? I’m with you, this is a sad story indeed. No one’s a winner…