Just to clarify—and I'm not denying her right to choose to do that—the person quoted in the article as citing "medical privacy" is one of the astronauts who was hospitalized.
From being involved with high altitude spy planes and stealth planes during the Cold war through to thinking about the many satellites that are put into space that relates to national security and even the clandestine space plane, we have no idea what it's for...
There is simply no precedent to be upset about a lack of transparency from NASA. Some of that is national security. Some of that is to protect IP. Some of it is just because of the way governments work.
Factor in that actually it may relate to a private company's operational issue (SpaceX) there's even less reason for transparency.
I don't think we will ever know
The essential elements of a social contract:
- I want it to be true real bad
- Other people are forced to comply with it
- I dictate the terms unilaterally
At this point, with Musk being very close to an incoming administration, it would not surprise me if they refuse to stick their neck out if it was something capsule related. Not saying that’s the case here, but it’s certainly a concern moving forward.