Anyone is eligible to send reports to the NSRS by downloading a form and mailing it via the United States Postal Service (USPS). NASA civil servants and contractors may submit a report electronically via this website.

You should consider using the NSRS to report a safety concern or hazard when:

• You have reported a safety concern or hazard locally and seen no action taken.
• You are not satisfied with the response to a reported safety concern or hazard.
• You are afraid or fear reprisal if you were to report locally or would prefer to report anonymously.

Reporting to the NSRS is entirely voluntary — no one is required to use the NSRS. However, prior to using the NSRS, you are encouraged to attempt to resolve any safety or hazard concerns at your workplace using existing local reporting channels. More information about local reporting channels at NASA can be found here.

Keep in mind, at any time you may voluntarily choose to bypass local reporting channels and report directly to the NSRS.

Any safety concern or hazard presented by a NASA activity that can affect the public, the NASA workforce or NASA assets should be reported. When reporting, describe the safety concern or hazard in detail. Include as much information as you can to help clarify your concern. Be sure to include the following information:

• A description of the safety concern or hazard;
• The physical location of the safety concern or hazard including Center/Location, Building, Room, etc.;
• Whether the safety concern or hazard affects NASA assets, the NASA workforce, and/or the general public;
• Whether you fear reprisal for reporting;
• Whether or not you have reported the hazard elsewhere, and if so to whom; and
• Whether the hazard relates to a single event or a recurring process.

With many safety concerns or hazards, additional information might assist an investigation:

• What you believe caused the safety concern or hazard;
• What you think can be done to correct the safety concern or hazard and prevent a recurrence;
• What you believe the consequences may be if the safety concern or hazard remains unresolved; or
• Manufacturing sources and/or part numbers (if hardware is involved).

You can, but are not required to, include the following information:

• Name;
• Mailing Address;
• Email (work or personal);
• Telephone number (work or personal); or
• Hours when you would prefer to be contacted, if required.

Providing this optional information allows the NSRS independent contractor to provide you with a case number and to contact you if additional information is needed for the investigation of the safety concern or hazard. Even if you provide your contact information, your identity will never be revealed to NASA personnel.

The NSRS is for reporting safety and health concerns or hazards only: Other issues should be reported as follows:

• Emergency situations requiring immediate response should be reported to local emergency services available to your location.
• The NSRS is not authorized to receive classified information that is marked Confidential, Secret or Top Secret. DO NOT include these information types in your report.
• You should report concerns involving waste, fraud, abuse or other alleged criminal activity directly to the NASA Inspector General’s Office (IG), NOT to the NSRS. The NSRS will refer any reports that allege waste, fraud, abuse or criminal activity to the NASA IG, including the reporter’s identity, as required by regulation. The NSRS cannot protect your anonymity if you report criminal activity.
• Mishaps should be reported to the NSRS Mishap Information System (NMIS).

There are two options to report to the NSRS.

1. Anyone may send a paper report via the United States Postal Service (USPS) to our Post Office Box.

2. NASA civil servants and contractors with NASA intranet access may submit a report electronically via this website.

In-person, telephone, messaging, or email reporting are not accepted. The NSRS cannot guarantee reporter anonymity using those methods.

If you provide your contact information when you submit your paper or online report, the independent contractor will notify you that the NSRS has received your report and will also provide you with a unique case number. You can visit the NSRS status page where the general status of your case will be posted. The independent contractor does not provide status updates directly to reporters — your case number on the website is the only means of status feedback to you.

If you do not provide your contact information, your report still receives the same due diligence, but you will not receive a case number and no general status can be provided on your report.

Once NASA has determined it does not need additional clarifying information for the investigation from you, the NSRS will end contact with you. If you have sent a paper report, the independent contractor will return the portion of the report form that contains your contact information. If you reported online to the NSRS, all contact information provided via the report form will be permanently deleted. The NSRS keeps no permanent records of reporter contact information to preserve your anonymity to NASA.

No additional feedback is provided to reporters beyond what is posted to the website. A reporter’s only other option is to independently look for observable changes in the environment where the safety concern or hazard was located — for example, changes to policy, plans, training, hardware, software, etc.

To keep your information anonymous to NASA, NSRS reports are processed only by an independent contractor. The contractor is vetted and trained to guard your identity and function as the interface between you and NASA to protect your anonymity.

Reports are collected and processed by the independent contractor. The contractor redacts all identifying information and provides deidentified transcripts of your concerns to the NSRS program manager and a senior leadership team at the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) at NASA Headquarters. The original report is NEVER shared with or seen by anyone other than the independent contractor. When it has been determined that there are no further questions about your concern, the independent contractor will, depending on the identifying information you provided and how your report was received, either return your identifying information or destroy it. No record of your identity is kept after this point.

* The NSRS is not authorized to receive information that is marked Confidential, Secret or Top Secret. Concerns involving waste, fraud, abuse or other alleged criminal activity should be reported directly to the NASA IG, NOT to the NSRS. Any reports sent to the NSRS that allege waste, fraud, abuse or criminal activity will be referred by the NSRS to the NASA IG, including the reporter’s identity, as required by regulation. A reporter’s anonymity cannot be protected if he or she reports criminal activity to the NSRS.

The NSRS program is designed to provide prompt attention to reported concerns and includes the following steps:

• The NSRS program manager is notified of new, incoming reports within 24 hours of their receipt by the NSRS independent contractor, who creates an identity-redacted transcription of the report to be shared with NASA.
• The independent contractor notifies the person that their report has been received, if contact information has been provided.
• The NSRS program manager screens the identity-redacted transcript for urgency and criticality.
• The NSRS program manager shares the identity-redacted transcript with a senior leadership team at the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) at NASA Headquarters, who together determine a plan of action and assign and independent investigator.
• All reports receive ongoing, prompt attention until all the safety concerns and hazards have been mitigated to an acceptable level.
• Reports alleging supervisory/management inaction require special handling and are investigated at a management level at least one organizational level above the level of the personnel reported to the NSRS.
• The independent investigator reports back to the NSRS program manager on a regular basis with their findings and proposed corrective actions. The NSRS report is not closed out until all agreed-upon corrective actions have been completed.

If you are not satisfied with NASA’s response to a safety concern or hazard, you still have another option: You can choose to elevate your concerns to the Office of Federal Agency Safety and Health Programs in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration within the Department of Labor, found here.

The online submission option is only available (and visible) to civil servants and contractors submitting from a device connected to the NASA intranet (e.g. a work computer/cell phone). The submit online option appears beside the “Download NSRS Form” button if you are eligible to submit electronically from your device. If you don’t see “Submit Online,” try accessing the NSRS site from your work computer while connected to the NASA intranet. If you still can’t access online reporting, you are not eligible to submit online and should download and submit a paper form.

If you can see the “Report Online” button above, you can report online.

Yes. The electronic reporting form is only accessible while connected to the NASA network. If you do not have network access, you may download and submit a paper form instead.

Every NASA computer is subject to IT surveillance, and even with secure communications, there is always an auditable trail outside the NSRS team’s control. This includes details like IP addresses, Internet Service Provider (ISP) records, web proxies, and other records that may be stored by your ISP, network, or computer. If you prefer, you may submit a report by printing a physical NSRS Report Form from the NSRS website, completing it, and mailing it with the United States Postal Service to the NSRS Post Office Box.