By MARCIA DUNN
AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — At least twice, astronauts were allowed to fly after flight surgeons and other astronauts warned they were so drunk they posed a flight-safety risk, an aviation weekly reported Thursday, citing a special panel studying astronaut health.
The independent panel also found "heavy use of alcohol" before launch that was within the standard 12-hour "bottle-to-throttle" rule, according to Aviation Week & Space Technology, which reported the finding on its Web site.
A NASA official confirmed that the health report contains claims of alcohol use by astronauts before launch, but said the information is based on anonymous interviews and is unsubstantiated. The official didn't want to be named because NASA plans a news conference Friday to discuss the panel's findings.
The panel was created following the arrest in February of former space shuttle flier Lisa Nowak, who was implicated in a love triangle.
NASA's space operations chief, Bill Gerstenmaier, said Thursday it would be inappropriate for him to discuss the matter before the report is released on Friday.
Asked if he had ever personally had to deal with a safety issue involving an inebriated astronaut in space, Gerstenmaier replied: "The obvious answer is no. I've never had any instances of that.
"There's not been a disciplinary action or anything I've been involved with regarding this type of activity," he said.
In Washington, the chairman of the House Science and Technology committee said he hadn't seen the report, "but if the reports of drunken astronauts being allowed to fly prove to be true, I think the agency will have a lot of explaining to do."
"That's not the 'right stuff' as far as I'm concerned," said Bart Gordon, D-Tenn.
The Aviation Week report doesn't make clear when the alleged incidents occurred, nor does it say whether the intoxication involved crew members who have no role in flying the shuttle or whether it was the pilot and commander.
NASA plans to release findings of a pair of reviews — one by the outside committee and the other by an internal panel — into astronauts' health Friday.
The independent panel's NASA consultant and its eight members, which include Air Force experts in aerospace medicine and clinical psychiatry, did not immediately return phone messages or e-mails from the Associated Press Thursday afternoon.
Aviation Week said the report citing drunkenness does not deal directly with Nowak or mention any other astronaut by name.
Nowak is accused of attacking the girlfriend of a fellow astronaut — her romantic rival — with pepper spray in a parking lot at Orlando International Airport. Fired by NASA in March, she has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted kidnapping, battery and burglary with assault.
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15 comments:
Whats so special about astronauts
There are a lot of drunks around Barnesville working and driving. They could kill people to.
People with alchohol addiction never even know they have a problem. They know it is the rest of the world or just something to cool them off or make them relax.
Thats the trouble with being a drunk, you think everyone else is not normal. Drunks hang around in packs so they think they are normal because their friends are all messed up drunks.
The ideal job for a drunk is any job where they get a lot of time off alone so they can drink. And they never know they are drunks. They just drink and ruin other lives. It aint just NASA.
sounds like thats coming from experience
5:54 am having a bad day are we?hubby come home a little late last night? my guess is your are a clost drinker that waves the bible above your head in church sing the prases and as soon as the doors swing open off to the shed for a little sip
whats wrong with them flying drunk?saves on rocket fuel-- how many plane crashes have you ever heard of being caused by drunk pilots? my guess would be none!! but there are plenty caused by sober pilots
up, up, and away
Every single time I have been into outer space I have had a few or more and I always seem to make it down just fine. I'm plannin' a take off as we speefk angd ih domn't diven gafd whutyrevjhyi aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
WOW that one was close I almost didn't make it back.
Rev.MJB
How hard is it to find outerspace? Why would you have to be sober to do this?....no traffic and a straight shot there,if a sober monkey can make it then a drunk human should.
i think the old coot that posted the first one is just pissed because he ain't never been out of barnesville,hell if he went to forstyh he'd think he was on another planet ,well come to think about it so would I
Were they the designated drivers? If so "Houston we have a problem!"
i got a case of whiskey d!(k and im flying to uranus!
Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "I'm gonna get high."
Good one 12:56. They interviewed one of the drunk flying astronauts and he said it was all good; he flew better after he had a few anyway.
Good one 12:56. They interviewed one of the drunk flying astronauts and he said it was all good; he flew better after he had a few anyway.
Don't they know they not suppose to drink and fly??
If I had a 500,000 lb bomb under me that could go off any second, I might get wasted too.
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