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NASA - Drunken astronauts reportedly allowed to fly
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[link to www.msnbc.msn.com]
Drunken astronauts reportedly allowed to fly
Independent panel cites ‘heavy use of alcohol’ before launch, sources say
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 9:12 p.m. ET July 26, 2007
A panel has found that astronauts were allowed to fly on at least two occasions despite warnings they were so drunk they posed a flight risk, sources familiar with the panel's report said Thursday.
Aviation Week also reported that the independent panel set up by NASA to study astronaut health issues found evidence of "heavy use of alcohol" before launch that was within the standard 12-hour "bottle-to-throttle" rule. Flight surgeons and other astronauts warned that drunken astronauts posed a flight risk when they flew on the two known occasions, according to the publication.
A source who has seen the panel's draft report confirmed that it referred to the two occasions — but noted that the claims were based strictly on anecdotal reports, rather than hard evidence such as blood tests. The source spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity because NASA did not provide authorization to discuss the report.
The report came to light even as NASA was dealing with an alleged case of space-computer sabotage, and served to highlight the challenges facing the space agency as it moves from the "right stuff" stereotypes of its past into a less forgiving future.
"Astronauts used to get away with all manner of rule-breaking back in the 1980s and 1990s, when NASA top managers used the astronaut office as their auxiliary drinking team, baseball team and dating service," said NBC News space analyst James Oberg, a 22-year veteran of NASA's Mission Control. "That has largely been cleaned up under the last two administrators."
Nevertheless, controversies still crop up: Most notably, astronaut Lisa Nowak was arrested in February and is facing assault charges for confronting a romantic rival. That sensational case sparked NASA to authorize the independent panel investigation as well as an internal review of the space agency's astronaut screening procedures.
Sources said that the panel's draft report does not address Nowak's case directly or mention any other astronaut by name.
A spokeswoman at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, where the astronaut corps is based, would not comment on the report. The space agency said it would release the findings of "two reviews regarding astronaut medical and behavioral health assessments" at a press conference on Friday in Washington.
more at above link
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