91av

A HACKER has broken into a supposedly secure NASA website and stolen blueprints for its next generation of reusable launch vehicles. This information could help rogue states put spy satellites or even space-based weapons into orbit.

The theft came to light on 7 August when Dan Verton, a journalist at US-based Computerworld magazine received an email containing 43 megabytes of documents from a hacker nicknamed RaFa. The documents included detailed mechanical designs for COBRA, a reusable, hydrogen-fuelled rocket booster being developed by Florida-based Pratt and Whitney, and Aerojet, an aerospace company based in Sacramento, California.

The engine could be used in the next generation of space shuttles planned as part of NASA’s Space Launch Initiative. The email also contained plans for Boeing’s Advanced Checkout, Control and Maintenance System, designed to ensure safety during the launch of the shuttles.

With the potential military applications for a reusable launcher, and the rapid growth in the satellite launch market, this information could be extremely valuable outside the US, says Ben Zinn, an aerospace engineer at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. The distribution of such documents is strictly controlled under US International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which means they cannot be exported. However, RaFa claims to have already passed the documents to hackers in France.

But Andrew Brookes of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, believes the information won’t be of much use to anyone. “If you don’t already have the technological ability to build these kinds of things, then these documents won’t help.”

While NASA spokesperson Bob Jacobs refuses to comment on the contents of the documents, he says they should have been held on a secure data system. RaFa claims that NASA simply forgot to switch on security features at the website where the documents were stored. NASA is now investigating the matter. “We take any intrusion into a closed system seriously,” Jacobs told 91av.