NASA Shuttle Inspector Indicted

Billy T. Thornton had a very important job at NASA. He was a quality assurance inspector in the space agency's shuttle program, in charge of signing off on structural inspections throughout the shuttle fleet. But in a 166-count federal indictment unsealed Tuesday, the government says he often failed to make those inspections and sometimes didn't even go aboard the spacecraft he was supposed to be inspecting.

Thornton, who lives in Port. St. John (FL) was arrested by officers with NASA's Inspector General's Office on Monday night.

The indictment centers on Thornton's inspection of the shuttle Discovery, the spacecraft that will make NASA's first manned flight into space since the Columbia tragedy of February 1st, 2003.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports Thornton, 54, is accused of signing off on 65 inspections of Discovery's interior structure without even going on board the orbiter. Each of the 65 items was deemed "criticality one" -- there are no backups for those systems if they fail in flight. Further, if a "criticality one" part fails, it could destroy the shuttle and all on board.

"Mr. Thornton has been a long-standing employee up there and is known as a guy who dots his i's and crosses his t's. Mr. Thornton considers working on the shuttle a privilege and an honor, not merely a job to go to every day."

In addition to rubber-stamping the Discovery inspections, Thornton is accused of falsifying 83 different inspections from October 24th, 2002 until May 14th, 2003. NASA fired him. Thornton now bags groceries and works for a cruise line based at Port Canaveral (FL).

If convicted, Thornton could be sentenced to a $500,000 fine and 15 years in prison -- for each count.

FMI: www.nasa.gov