NASA’s
process for monitoring the physical and mental health of its Astronaut Corps is
sound, despite the stunning arrest
of spaceflyer and mission
specialist Lisa Nowak this week, a former NASA psychiatrist said Wednesday.
Terence
McGuire, NASA’s lead manned spaceflight psychiatrist for 36 years until
the mid-1990s, said the initial screening process and medical care levels for
astronauts should be able to catch problems among them before they become a
serious concern. That makes Nowak’s Monday arrest by Florida police all
the more perplexing, he added.
NASA astronaut
candidates are subjected to a pair of two-hour psychological screenings when
applying to the Astronaut Corps, and receive annual check-ups by doctors
trained to spot any hint of unease or behavioral distress, Jeff Davis, NASA
director of Space Life Sciences at the agency’s Johnson Space Center,
said in a Wednesday press briefing. But astronauts are not required to undergo
regular psychological exams on top of their normal health checkups, NASA
officials added.
“I think
that to put another layer on that, and say, well, every year we’re
supposed to have a psychological evaluation, I think that’s gilding the
lily,” McGuire said. “They should be able to get everything that
they need … I don’t really think that they need something better.”
NASA deputy
chief Shana
Dale said in Wednesday’s briefing that the space agency is launching a review of
its psychological and medical requirements for astronauts.
The
announcement comes one day after Orlando police charged Nowak, a 43-year-old
shuttle mission specialist, with attempted
first-degree murder, kidnapping and other counts related to an alleged
Monday confrontation with U.S. Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman. Police said
Nowak drove the 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) from her Houston home to the
Orlando airport, where she confronted Shipman, whom the astronaut believed to
be a rival for the affections of NASA space
shuttle
pilot William Oefelein.
Dale said
Nowak, whom authorities released on bail
Tuesday, has been placed on a 30-day leave and pulled from NASA’s
active astronaut duty roster.
Support systems available
NASA officials
said Tuesday that astronauts, like all civil servants, can draw on a host of
medical and behavioral support services.
“We have
an employee program where anybody that is in any stressful situation—a
death in the family, divorce and so on—can seek employee assistance,
[like] counseling, that is available to any civil servant or anyone
working,” said Bob Cabana, a NASA astronaut and deputy director of the
Johnson Space Center, the agency’s Houston-based astronaut training
facility.
Cabana
stressed that NASA astronauts are a tight-knit group that draw support from
each other, even as they draw on family and friends.
“The
general feeling in the corps is that we look out for one another,” Cabana
said of astronauts seeking medical assistance, adding that there is no stigma
attached to those who do so.
But McGuire
conceded that just because a support base exists, does not make necessarily an
attractive option for some astronauts, pilots or other high-performing
professionals whom may believe that seeking medical assistance could have future
repercussions.
“Pilots,
in general, tend to stay away from medical people,” said McGuire, a
former U.S. Air Force flight surgeon. “[Flight surgeons] are one of the
only groups that can stop them from doing what they truly love. They have the
capacity to ground them.”
Gaining a
pilot or spaceflyer's trust as a physician is the
key, McGuire said.
McGuire said
that during his term as NASA’s chief spaceflight psychiatrist, he
encountered cases of post-flight malaise, especially given the intensive training
and rigorous schedule in the years between an astronaut’s selection for a
mission and the subsequent spaceflight.
Post-mission
malaise does not affect all pilots, though it can be drawn out or fade quickly
in those it does affect, McGuire added.
“I would
imagine that there is somewhat of a letdown following a mission, just as there
would be for anyone who has planned for and completed a significant
event," said Jack Stuster, a NASA contractor
involved in an experiment reviewing journals kept by ISS astronauts during
their missions to track their mental states. "It might be more acute for
astronauts because their flight possibilities are so limited and there's such a
long preparation time."
Nowak herself
touched on the inherent sacrifice the life as an astronaut entails as she
prepared for her July 2006 spaceflight, but stressed that the payoff of human
space exploration warranted the personal demand.
“It’s
a sacrifice for our own personal time and our families and the people around
us,” Nowak said in a NASA interview. “But I do think it’s
worth it because if you don’t explore and take risks and go do all these
things then everything will stay the same. People aren’t like that. We
want to explore and expand and know more about the place around us.”
Stuster thinks it's unwise to link Nowak's behavior to her
experience at NASA.
"We
didn't hear about the dozens of other cases in Florida last week where people
behaved oddly who weren't associated with NASA," Stuster said.
"This incident really doesn't have anything to do with NASA. It has to do
with human behavior and people's reactions to circumstances."
Stuster is the author of “Bold Endeavors: Lessons from
Polar and Space Exploration”, a book that compares and contrasts the
experiences of explorers, shipwreck survivors, astronauts and others who have
endured long-duration confinement and isolation.
"Astronauts
are far better prepared psychologically and technically," he said,
"than explorers of the past."
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