NASA: No drunken astronauts
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - January 24, 2008 The anonymous survey uncovered a single case of "perceived
impairment" by someone just a day or more from blasting into
space, and it turned out to be a reaction between prescription
medicine and alcohol.
NASA officials, citing medical privacy, refused to say when or
where the episode occurred, only that it happened on one of the
final days leading up to launch but not on launch day. The crew
member ultimately was cleared for flight and rocketed into space.
The officials said they did not know whether the specified case
was one of the two alleged cases of astronaut drunkenness cited in
a report by outside medical experts last summer.
NASA has yet to receive any proof or information about
astronauts drinking heavily in the 12 hours before liftoff, said
Ellen Ochoa, deputy director of Johnson Space Center in Houston.
"We really never understood from the beginning exactly what
might have led to the comment in the health care report," Ochoa, a
former shuttle astronaut, said at a news conference. "We've tried
to run it to ground. We haven't uncovered anything. I don't know of
any issues associated with alcohol before flight."
None of those surveyed last fall - 87 of 98 astronauts and all
31 flight surgeons - reported seeing a crew member drinking alcohol
on launch day.
No policy changes are planned for either drinking or handling
medication; the 12-hour ban on drinking remains in effect. A new
astronaut code of conduct, though, is almost complete.
The allegations of drunken astronauts arose last July, just
months following the arrest of one-time shuttle flier Lisa Nowak.
She chased her astronaut-boyfriend's new girlfriend from Houston to
Florida last February, and ended up in jail. She's yet to stand
trial.
Because of the Nowak scandal, NASA established a panel of
aerospace medicine experts to look into astronaut mental health.
The experts, citing unidentified sources, reported heavy drinking
by two astronauts right before their respective launches, one from
Cape Canaveral and one from Kazakhstan. Doctors' concerns about the
astronauts' inebriated state were supposedly overruled by
management.
The panel's report stated that flight surgeons' medical opinions
were not valued by NASA managers, and that astronauts and flight
surgeons were reluctant to report improper conduct.
In the survey, however, astronauts and flight surgeons indicated
they were not afraid to raise concerns of flight safety, and that
their relationship was healthy and had improved significantly over
time. But a small number of respondents acknowledged that some
astronauts still have the perception they could lose out on a space
assignment if expressing concerns.
As for the Nowak case, NASA is in a better position today than
it was a year ago to detect serious behavioral health problems
facing astronauts, and to intervene before it's too late, said Dr.
Richard Williams, NASA's chief health and medical officer.
Members of Congress urged NASA on Wednesday to address all the
concerns raised in the outside panel's health report and the latest
survey.
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On the Net:
NASA:
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/astronautreport.html