Space Shuttle Secrets Stolen For China

Ponca City, We Love You writes "The Department of Justice has announced the indictment of former Boeing engineer Dongfan Chung on charges of economic espionage in the theft of company trade secrets relating to the Space Shuttle, the C-17 military transport aircraft, and the Delta IV rocket. Chung is a native of China and a naturalized US citizen. According to the indictment, Chinese aviation industry representatives began sending Chung 'tasking' letters as early as 1979. Over the years, the letters directed Chung to collect specific technological information, including data related to the Space Shuttle and various military and civilian aircraft. Chung allegedly responded in one letter indicating a desire to contribute to the 'motherland,' the DOJ said. It was not immediately clear how much, if any, damage the alleged espionage did to US national security but DOJ officials said the cases reflect the determination of the Chinese government to penetrate US intelligence and obtain vital national defense secrets. 'Today's prosecution demonstrates that foreign spying remains a serious threat in the post-Cold War world,' said Kenneth L. Wainstein, Assistant Attorney General for National Security"

Comments

Re:Open source all of this stuff

[diablovision]

This is pretty naive. The space program and the ICBM programs were so tightly intertwined that making it to the Moon was as much about national prestige as it was cover for developing ICBMs that could hit their targets (and demonstrating to the Russians that we could). Openly publishing the space shuttle secrets might not be quite as completely and utterly irresponsible as publishing nuclear weapon designs, but damn it, it be close. The potential military applications are enormous.