Documents / FOIA release
This is a July 27, 2021 FOIA response from NASA's Office of Communications to John Greenewald, Jr. It covers records from Leslie Kean's lawsuit against NASA seeking Kecksburg documents. NASA released 207 pages in full, 7 in part and withheld 31, noting that most of the lawsuit case files had been destroyed under records retention rules. The enclosures include court declarations, a 2003 appeal decision ordering a broader search, a 2019 FOIA response, and Stan Gordon's account of the missing NASA fragology files.
“Headquarters”17 pages
2 4. I wrote the “Roberts memo,” which under my instruction, was sent by the FOIA Officer, Stephen McConnell to all the FOIA Centers and appropriate Headquarters Offices. My intent in writing the memo was to ensure that those conducting the search knew the 11 items requested (amended initial request), understood that the search needed to be expansive and include repositories of archived and classified materials in addition to program offices and administrative offices, and that the searches should be completed within the month. I also stated in the memo that the requestor had informed NASA of its plan to sue so that the FOIA officers would maintain good records, have an understanding of why I was asking that this request be handled ahead of their current pending requests, and complete the searches within the schedule. 5. The date of January 5th for completing the search was chosen after consultation on December 2nd with Plaintiff’s counsel by telephone. I discussed my intent to provide the plaintiff any responsive documents as quickly as possible and within a schedule that would be of help to her. I also knew that since archived documents needed to be reviewed, a month would be required to complete the work. I believe this schedule was consistent with the Agency’s requirement to conduct a “reasonably calculated” search. 6. In addition to the “Roberts memo”, it is my understanding (and I contemporaneously confirmed) that Stephen McConnell sent the FOIA Center Officers and Headquarters Offices the documents sent by the Plaintiff to assist the Agency in its search and that information was available to those conducting the searches.
FOIA release, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 223 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.