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Chawla's gaff occured on a previous space shuttle mission. Aparently, as others on this thread have indicated, she caused a problem with a satelite they were launching and a space walk was required to correct her mistake.

Nice of Shep to apologize for reading the scoop before he had a chance to really understand what was being said. However, I listened to quite a bit of coverage on CBS radio in the late morning/early afternoon and their announcer informed the audience of Chawla's gaff on the previous mission as well. Since I didn't see Shep mention it, I really can't comment the propriety of his report. However, on CBS radio, the information was presented rather matter-of-factly in a running commentary summarizing the days events. The information regarding Chawla was not presented as a news item in and of itself. It was somewhat discomforting to hear this report about one of the astronauts who was killed in today's accidents, but the CBS announcer also made it clear that it was on a previous mission and didn't necessarily reflect badly on Chawla, afterall, she was given a further assignment/mission, so NASA must not have felt the mistake was that big of a deal.

Stuff happens when events occur and media outlets race to get information to the public. It's not like the public should not know of this information (i.e., the Chawla gaff on the previous mission), it's just that maybe today is not the day to publicize this information. Like I said, it was nice of Shep to apologize, but he should have saved himself the embarassment by taking a bit of extra time to think about what he is saying on national tv. I like Shep, but sometimes he gets too excited and gets carried away in the moment, and makes mistakes for which he feels compelled to apologize for later (e.g., this info on Chawla, and the J-blow incident). On the other hand, on many stories (like the apprehension of the DC snipers for example) Shep handles the job like a real pro as good as any network. I like Shep because he has a different style of delivery than most TV news people - it's a refreshing change.