Astronauts were allowed to fly after flight surgeons and other astronauts warned they were so drunk they posed a flight-safety risk on at least two occasions, an aviation weekly reported Thursday.
It cited a special panel studying astronaut health, which found "heavy use of alcohol" before launch that was within the standard 12-hour "bottle-to-throttle" rule, according to Aviation Week & Space Technology. It reported the finding on its Web site.
A NASA official confirmed 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.
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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-Tennessee.
I'll admit, if someone wanted to strap me to a liquid fueled rocket and set it off I may want a couple bottles of Redbreast beforehand...but I'm what you call, technically, a "coward." At the bare minimum, our astronauts should be better than...well...me.
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