NASA Astronauts Flew While Drunk

[RWC130 594]

Astronauts Flew While Drunk, Report Says

By MARCIA DUNN, AP

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (July 27) - Despite safety warnings from NASA doctors, astronauts were allowed to fly after drinking heavily, an independent panel said in a report released Friday.

Air Force Col. Richard E. Bachmann, NASA's health care review committee chairman, speaks via phone Friday during a Washington press conference about a report that NASA let astronauts fly drunk on at least two occasions.

The report said it happened twice but gave no names and did not say when the drinking occurred, how many astronauts were involved, or whether they were flying on the space shuttle, the Russian Soyuz spaceship, or aboard NASA's training jets.

NASA officials let them fly even after flight surgeons and fellow astronauts raised concerns that safety might be jeopardized, according to the report, done by a panel created by NASA after the arrest of astronaut Lisa Nowak in February on charges she tried to kidnap her rival in a love triangle.

In a statement Friday, NASA said that it is unaware of any astronauts who were drunk before a flight but that it is investigating. It said the panel failed to give the space agency any details of the allegations.

NASA has long had a policy that prohibits any drinking in the 12 hours before an astronaut flies a training jet. The space agency said that policy has historically been applied to spaceflights, too. But as a result of the panel's report, the rule will officially be applied to spaceflights, NASA said.

The panel said that astronauts and flight surgeons told the committee about heavy drinking by crew members just before flights. Also, the panel said alcohol is freely used in the crew quarters, where astronauts are quarantined at the Kennedy Space Center in the three days before launch.

Former astronaut Lisa Nowak, 44, was arrested in February after driving 900 miles to Orlando, Fla., from Houston to confront her rival over a colleague's affection, authorities said.

Only four paragraphs of the 12-page report dealt with alcohol use by astronauts.

"Two specific instances were described where astronauts had been so intoxicated prior to flight that flight surgeons and-or fellow astronauts raised concerns to local on-scene leadership regarding flight safety," the panel. "However, the individuals were still permitted to fly."

The eight-member panel included experts in aerospace medicine and medical legal matters, and clinical psychiatrists.

The panel said that NASA is not set up in such a way to deal with alcohol use by astronauts.

"The medical certification of astronauts for flight duty is not structured to detect such episodes, nor is any medical surveillance program by itself likely to detect them or change the pattern of alcohol use," the panel wrote.

The panel recommended that NASA hold individuals and supervisors accountable for responsible use of alcohol, and that policies be instituted involving drinking before flight.

In another finding, the panel reported that flight surgeons' medical opinions were not valued by higher-ups. Several senior flight surgeons told the panel that officials only wanted to hear that all medical systems "were `go' for on-time mission completion."

The flight surgeons told the panel that higher-ups in NASA were notified of "major crew medical or behavioral problems," but that the flight surgeons' medical advice was ignored.

"This disregard was described as 'demoralizing' to the point where they said they are less likely to report concerns of performance decrement," the panel wrote. "Crew members raised concerns regarding substandard astronaut task performance which were similarly disregarded."

Fourteen astronauts, all but one with spaceflight experience, were interviewed by the panel, as well as five family members. All volunteered to take part in the review. In addition, eight flight surgeons were interviewed.

Associated Press reporter Rasha Madkour in Miami contributed to this report.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press

[Guest WCDES636]

If my butt was strapped to a big old fuel tank that might explode at any time. I might take a nip or two!

[hudson144 150]

''ONE MORE FOR THE MOON''!

[JetPhoto 626]

You don't want them to fly into another spacecraft drunk!

[irishfire2491 24]

They have to Regulate the Bar at NASA lol they should shut it down

[JBE 328]

Nip nothing. I'd have the bottle of JD and a bottle of Pepsi in hand the minute I stepped on the gantry.

[Remember585 815]

I'd have to be hammered to fly into space....good for them! LOL