Although the primary goal of this blog is to provide serious and in-depth articles, every now and then we enjoy taking a look at the more bizarre side of criminal background checks. NASA recently had a rare intersection with our world when astronaut Lisa Nowak was charged with attempted murder after allegedly assaulting romatic rival Colleen Shipman. The story rapidly spread in national headlines, as it contained all the Fatal Attraction elements: a married woman obsessed with another man, violent female rage, and a long drive using a diaper so that rest stops would not be necessary. The details are better found elsewhere but this raised the question for us, how does NASA handle its employee screening?
Whatever they are doing must be reasonably effective. According to NASA this is the first time that an active-duty astronaut has been charged with a felony. The agency is currently implementing a security upgrade that will require all employees to have a NACI background investigation, also known as a National Agency Check with Inquiries. This is an very extensive background check that starts with a check of various government databases such as the FBI index (using name and fingerprint), terrorist watch lists, immigration, CIA, State Department, and so on. A credit bureau check and police check are done, covering where the applicant has lived, worked, or attended school in the past five years. The agency will independently verify date and place of birth. Written inquiries are sent to schools, employers, and law enforcement as well. This is far more screening than the typical U.S. employee receives and generally takes 75 days to fully complete.
While we don’t know exactly how Lisa Nowak was screened, my guess is that she had a clean record before this incident. While background screening can be very powerful, it does not have the ability to predict the future.
I think it’s interesting that in a program (manned spaceflight) nearly 50 years old, it has taken until now for something like this to happen (or come to light). Obviously, NASA as an agency has been doing something right in terms of screening, despite regrettable lapses in other areas, like spacecraft design (see, e.g., CEV) and procurement strategy (see congressional districts, map of).