The IRE and NICAR Database Library has federal contract data from 1979 to the present. The main tableshows the contractor, its location, and the amount of money involved. It also includes general descriptions of the type of work, among other details. The most recent version of this database contains a table of additional information for NASA contracts. See details and sample data at http://www.ire.org/datalibrary/databases/viewdatabase.php?dbaseindex=17

To obtain the data, contact the Database Library at 573-884-7711. If there's no answer, please leave a message.

Stories
The IRE Resource Center offers stories already published or broadcast, and tipsheets designed to assist journalists. You can search the story database to find these examples and more:

Story No. 20750: Following the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia, an investigation by the Dallas Business Journal led to the identification of Lockheed Missiles and Fire Control as the company that had made the leading wing edges and nose cone of the aircraft. These were the components that investigators were looking at. The article looks at the contract commitments between NASA and the company.

Story No. 20846: After the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia, the Dallas Business Journal identified companies that had done $62.2 million on NASA work during the 2001 fiscal year. The story looked at what the companies were working on for NASA, and, in some cases, how those projects would be affected by the Columbia tragedy.

Story No. 20965: The Atlantic Monthly tells the inside story of the Columbia space shuttle disaster and the investigation that followed it. With access to key figures and evidence at NASA and the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, the story provides an insight from different perspectives: the personal, the institutional, the concrete, the abstract, the emotional and the political. Finally, the report reveals deep flaws in NASA's oversight of Columbia's last flight.

Story No. 21088: A collection of stories from the Orlando Sentinel including pieces on the frequency and severity of foam impacts on previous shuttles;a story that Columbia mission engineers had been worried about possible damage by the foam strike but had been dismissed by their superiors; reporting on the behind-the-scenes debate over whether to seek imagery of the damage and about the inadequacies of the efforts to try to predict damage; a story on how accident investigating board members were being paid by NASA in order to get around federal-open meeting requirements; and a look at 6 other chronic shuttle problems that have been accepted as "normal" by NASA engineers, just as foam was accepted.

Story No. 21221: Reporters from ABC News investigate the tragedy of the Columbia space shuttle, which exploded on February 1, 2003, killing all seven astronauts on board. Over the course of six months, the reporters conducted their own independent investigation of the events that caused the Columbia accident. Reporters spoke with a series of safety officials, engineers, and flight director, Leroy Cain and discovered that a number of individuals tried to warn NASA about the possible problems with the vessel. As a result, ABC News released the findings two months before NASA released theirs, which managed to contain a lot of the same information. ABC News also played a large role in encouraging NASA to perform "a broad review of its safety and management practices."

Story No. 21379: In the aftermath of the crash of the space shuttle, Columbia, scientists look at what went wrong. The Los Angeles Times reporter, follows the scientists from their search for the wreckage to rebuilding what might have happened. He goes into intricate details about how the wing broke off and why it caused the shuttle to disintegrate.

Story No. 21832: This book by Michael Cabbage and William Harwood chronicles the events surrounding the Feb. 1, 2003, space shuttle Columbia accident that killed seven astronauts. The investigation found that there was a heated debate among engineers on the ground whether it was safe for the shuttle to return, that opportunities to learn the extent of the spacecraft's problems were missed and that repeated warning signs were ignored.

Story No. 4684: The Los Angeles Times tracks the events that preceded and followed the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger, including the early theories on the cause of the accident.
Story Year: 1986

Story No. 4103: The Hartford Courant reports workers who refurbish the shuttles say a disaster in the space shuttle program was inevitable since 1983 because pressure to make it a low-cost cargo fleet led to safety cutbacks, carelessness and lax inspection; also discloses that several unions filed complaints against NASA for violation of federal labor laws.
Story Year: 1986

Story No. 4167: New York Times articles on the report of the president's commission investigating the space shuttle disaster explains how the booster rocket failed and what recommendations the commission made for the future.
Story Year: 1986

Story No. 5423: Newsweek describes a U.S. Air Force program to build cheaper rockets that was deliberately scuttled by Air Force brass; use of the simpler, cheaper rockets could open up the space program, and might have prevented the Challenger tragedy.
Story Year: 1987

Story No. 6110: CBS News investigates allegations by safety engineers at Morton Thiokol, Inc. who alleged that perhaps as many as several hundred safety reports were suppressed or destroyed during the redesigning of the solid rocket boosters that power the space shuttle into space.
Story Year: 1988

Story No. 4147: Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader publishes article on government-funded studies that warned NASA of the likelihood of a failure in the solid-rocket boosters used in launching the space shuttle as early as five years before the Challenger explosion.
Story Year: 1986

Story No. 2606: Daily Southeast News (Los Angeles) runs a series on million-dollar mischarges to contracts by Rockwell International for the space shuttle.
Story Year: 1983

Story No. 2137: Common Cause magazine article, "Whistleblower," says Rockwell International fired an employee who reported the company instructs employees to charge for their time spent on the B-1 bomber and other projects to the company's space shuttle contract; government and private industry interdependence questioned.
Story Year:1984

Story No. 4651: Regardie's blames the space shuttle disaster on classic poor management problems within NASA.
Story Year: 1987

Story No. 6716: Space Business News (Arlington, Va.) shows how many components of the space shuttle are available from only one manufacturer; although any of the companies closing shop could place the program years behind, NASA chooses not to seek other suppliers, and nurtures the costly monopolies instead.
Story Year: 1989

Story No. 6964: City Paper (Washington, D.C.) details claims by an engineer that there is a a fatal flaw in the design and launch procedure of the space shuttle.
Story Year: 1990

Story No. 8113: Now It Can Be Told (New York) uncovers a cover-up orchestrated by NASA to promote the belief that the Challenger Space Shuttle explosion killed instantly the seven astronauts when they knew from the autopsies that they survived until the craft hit the ocean surface.
Story Year: 1991

Story No. 19049: Hundreds of tons of space debris orbit the Earth. It can reach speeds of 30,000 miles an hour as it makes its circuit. As the US puts more permanent installations into orbit, the question of how to avoid or protect against the dangerous debris becomes a task of utmost importance. Discover Magazine's Brad Lemley asks NASA how the agency goes about protecting astronauts, the shuttle, and satellites from these high speed projectiles.
Story Year: 2001

Story No. 1164: Common Cause Magazine article says government plan to help a private company send a commercial laboratory into orbit could cost NASA hundreds of millions.
Story Year: 1988

Story No. 6569: Alternet (Washington, D.C.) distributes two stories examining the dangers and unnecessary use of plutonium in space; a report obtained through a FOIA request showed solar energy as a viable alternative, despite NASA claims to the contrary.
Story Year: 1989

Story No. 8019: New Republic investigates the costs of NASA's space program and finds that the agency is costing many times more than it did 20 years ago, and makes the case for major reforms within the agency.
Story Year: 1991

Story No. 13582: CovertAction Quarterly reports that despite enormous danger, huge expense and the alternative of solar power, the U.S. is pushing ahead with using nuclear power in space. The article especially examines NASA's Cassini mission in which the space probe Cassini will receive its electric power from three radioisotope thermal generators with a total of 72.3 pounds of plutonium fuel.
Story Year: 1996

Story No. 13420: Texas Monthly investigates Operation Lightning Strike, an FBI sting designed to root out fraud and corruption among NASA employees and contractors. Under the code name, John Clifford, Special Agent Hal Francis propositioned struggling NASA contractors, entering into illegal deals with them designed to rip off NASA. The article catalogues the FBI's aggressive manipulation of NASA employees in a law enforcement operation which bordered on entrapment.
Story Year: 1996

Story No. 16924: The Hartford Courant found contaminations of oil droplets in NASA's entire inventory of space suits could have led to fires inside the suits. NASA's prime contractor for space suits spent the summer of 2000 fixing the suits' backup oxygen systems so the International Space Station could be assembled in time on September. NASA and the contractor are still investigating the problem, which may be due to standards that weren't stringent enough or leaky pump seals.
Story Year: 2000

Tipsheets
Tipsheets can be found by searching the tipsheet database.

Tipsheet No. 1857: News researcher Margot Williams shows how there is more to the Web than just using Google. This tipsheet explores various ways a reporter would miss information by just using Google. Williams shows information on Iraq War Casualties, terrorism, the Space Shuttle Columbia and more that can't be found with with the popular search engine.

Uplink and The IRE Journal
Another resource is the searchable Index of The IRE Journal and Uplink.

Back issues of The IRE Journal and Uplink may be purchased for $10 each. There is an additional $10 user fee for nonmembers. Check with the Resource Center at 573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org for availability.