Space Operations: Archiving Space Science Data Needs Further Management
Improvements (Letter Report, 12/09/93, GAO/NSIAD-94-25).

In two 1990 reports (GAO/IMTEC-90-1 and GAO/IMTEC-91-3), GAO criticized
the conditions of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's
(NASA) data archives, pointing out that the archives were incomplete for
many important missions and held no data for others.  GAO recommended
that NASA improve the physical condition of its archives, obtain and
restore all appropriate data from past missions, and revise its data
management policies to ensure that all valuable data are adequately
achieved in the future.  Since then, NASA has improved its
data-archiving policies and practices, but further improvements are
needed to correct some significant long-standing problems, such as
continuing storage of data at "temporary locations" that do not meet
archive standards and the lack of periodic inspections of data archives
to ensure that data quality is protected.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  NSIAD-94-25
     TITLE:  Space Operations: Archiving Space Science Data Needs 
             Further Management Improvements
      DATE:  12/09/93
   SUBJECT:  Aerospace research
             Space exploration
             Archives
             Data storage
             Warehouse facilities
             Federal records management
             Computerized information systems
             Records retention
             Data integrity
             Future budget projections
IDENTIFIER:  NASA Data Management Initiative
             NASA Earth Observing System
             NASA Earth Observing System Data Information System
             U.S. Global Change Research Program
             NASA Tape Staging and Storage Facility
             
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