No Evidence
NASA released its long-awaited report on their investigation into anonymous allegations that astronauts had flown while drunk. Investigators were unable to find any evidence that such incidents had happened.
The review released Wednesday could not verify two drinking allegations described by an independent panel last month, and Griffin said they just didn't happen. The report did acknowledge the availability of alcohol in crew quarters, noting that non-flying astronauts made booze-buying runs for their quarantined colleagues.
The 45-page report by NASA safety chief Bryan O'Connor, a former astronaut and shuttle accident investigator, was initiated after the July report on astronaut health by eight medical experts.
"I was unable to verify any case in which an astronaut spaceflight crewmember was impaired on launch day" or any case where a manager disregarded warnings from another NASA employee that an astronaut not fly, said O'Connor's report.
However, O'Connor said NASA doctors should play a stronger "oversight" role on launch day, accompanying astronauts as they suit up for launch. O'Connor also recommended that excessive drinking be added to NASA's list of risky activities forbidden for astronauts in the year before launch, along with motorcycle racing, parachuting and firefighting.
That is not to say that there is not some drinking - but it appears to be reasonable.
The safety chief toured crew quarters at space centers in both Houston and Cape Canaveral, Fla., as the astronauts were in quarantine days before launch of the shuttle Endeavour earlier this month.
"I saw one half-empty bottle of tequila in one of the cupboards," O'Connor wrote. He also said beer and wine are available from non-flying astronauts making booze runs.
Still, beer and wine consumption now seems less than what was reported in the 1980s and early 1990s, O'Connor reported. It's usually moderate amounts of wine or beer at dinner, during off-duty times, and a far higher percentage of current astronauts are teetotalers these days, he wrote.
He also noted that "the lack of privacy on launch day makes it nearly impossible to hide alcohol use or alcohol-induced impairment."
"There are reasonable safeguards in place to prevent an impaired crew member from ever boarding a spacecraft," O'Connor said at the news conference.
The media screeched about the initial (anonymous) reports and are being pretty low-key about the findings of the official inquiry. Isn't it interesting how the media gets all stiff-necked about certain behaviors if it can be used as a club against a perceived hero (or a political opponent) but dismiss or downplay similar reports if someone they like is involved? It is, frankly, ridiculous that this huge puritanical streak appears in reporting from a media that increasingly writes either approvingly or sympathetically about some really outrageous behaviors.
By Quilly Mammoth, Wednesday, 29 August , 2007 @ 9:30 pm
Yet another reason to believe the fact checking (not) MSM.