WASHINGTON — The NASA inspector general says the space agency is breaking the law by allowing conflicts of interest on a board overseeing the building of a new spaceship to return astronauts to the moon.

The board is set up to review NASA's new Orion capsule. The panel is loaded with employees of the contractors it is supposed to scrutinize, the inspector general report says.

The report says the board chairman and five other members work for contractors hired by NASA for the multi-billion-dollar space shuttle replacement program. Four of the six are also stockholders in firms making money off the NASA project, the report says.

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