NASA dismisses Reports of Astronauts flying drunk

In a safety review released Wednesday, NASA dismissed claims that astronauts indulge in heavy drinking prior to a launch and that they are drunk on flight missions. NASA administrator Michael Griffin proclaimed at a news conference that no evidence has been found to support the allegations.

An independent panel on astronauts’ health reported in July that NASA astronauts flew while drunk on two occasions. Following which, the space agency authorized chief of Safety and Mission Assurance, Bryan O'Connor to evaluate the allegations. He conducted a month-long review and concluded that the blames was false.

The marked drinking incidents were: one ahead of a space shuttle mission that was eventually delayed, and another involving a US astronaut on a Russian Soyuz mission bound for the International Space Station (ISS).

O’Connor in his review, covered the past two decades of NASA’s flight history, scrutinizing records of shuttle, Russian Soyuz and other flights concerning U.S. astronauts dating back to 1984. Astronauts, flight controllers, medical personnel and scores of other people who take part in training and evaluating crews were questioned. Results compiled in the 45-page report dismissed all claims of astronauts being drunk.

The report also states that NASA's flight surgeons had no evidence of alcohol impairment by astronauts and there were no concerns for them being disregarded. “I found that although there may be occasional disagreements among operations and medical team members, all parties understand their roles and authorities and the multiple safety reporting and appeal paths,” said the safety chief.

"I was unable to verify any case in which an astronaut space flight crew member was impaired on launch day or any case where a manager of a flight surgeon or co-crew member disregarded their recommendation that a crew member not fly Shuttle or Soyuz," reported O’Connor.

However, the media was skeptical about the different conclusions from two investigations; to which O’Connor said that the external committee had only heard about it and while presenting their report they admitted that it was non-verified. “They gave it to us to go verify, and so that's the ground rules we played by,” added O'Connor.

NASA says taking a serious account of the July report and is considering various actions and modifications of its policies, procedures and organizational structures in order to improve the astronaut health care systems.