Irresponsible
The NASA panel report I posted about last night has now been released. Mike Carney from USA Today's On Deadline has the relevant section posted:
Finding: Interviews with both flight surgeons and astronauts identified some episodes of heavy use of alcohol by astronauts in the immediate preflight period, which has led to flight safety concerns. Alcohol is freely used in crew quarters. 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. However, the individuals were still permitted to fly. 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 recommends that NASA establish specific policies for the "safe and responsible use of alcohol." Also, the report says NASA should ensure that existing policies are enforced, including those that prohibit the use of alcohol before flights or in crew quarters.
The allegations remain anonymous. But I would seriously like to know why these charges were not made earlier and in public. If the people making the allegations were so concerned at the time the events supposedly happened, then why did these people not resign on the spot? A flight surgeon has absolutely no business allowing an unfit astronaut to fly. Any doctor who would not immediately go over the head of a local manager who made a bad call on this is wrong. Any astronaut who would not refuse to fly with a safety hazard is also wrong.
Is it too much to ask that people stand up for what they really believe in? This is one of those things that will be used by the modern day Luddites to justify cutting the space program. That holds true whether the allegations are true or not. If astronauts did engage in the behaviors described, they endangered others and the whole program. If doctors and other personnel did not stop such behavior, they endangered others and the whole program. If the allegations are false, they merely endanger the entire program. This is a lose-lose-lose situation.
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Pajamas Media — Friday, 27 July , 2007 @ 2:32 pm
By feeblemind, Friday, 27 July , 2007 @ 2:09 pm
At this point my reaction to the story is to shrug it off. No names, no evidence. Where is the story? As of now ot looks like one of the many “fake but accurate” stories we have seen circulated over the last few years. So… this looks suspiciously like a disgruntled employee with an axe to grind. We shall see. Nothing to worry about. Yet.
By Bleepless, Saturday, 28 July , 2007 @ 10:01 am
It turns out that Yuri Gagarin was drunk when he crashed his plane and killed himself.
By Gaius, Saturday, 28 July , 2007 @ 10:13 am
Which is NASA’s fault? Somehow the logic escapes me.