This story was updated at 4:58 p.m. EDT.
NASA has launched an investigation into claims that
astronauts have flown despite appearing intoxicated based on a report by an
independent health panel, the space agency said Friday.
"At this point, we're dealing with allegations and we
need to find out what the ground truth is," NASA associate administrator Shana Dale said in a press briefing.
The investigation, as well as a new interim policy
pertaining to alcohol use by spaceflyers prior to launch, stem from the
findings of an independent review of NASA's astronaut health care system. The
12-page report, along with an internal NASA review on the agency's behavioral
and medical practices, was released Friday.
U.S. Air Force Col. Richard Bachmann, Jr., a veteran flight
surgeon who chaired the independent panel, said his committee found at
least two instances in which a crewmember had reportedly drank
heavily before flight. One involved astronauts flying aboard a NASA shuttle
and T-38 aircraft, while the other relating to Russian Soyuz flight to the
International Space Station, he said.
In one of the accounts, Bachmann said, an astronaut reported
concerns over a fellow spaceflyer's condition after a
shuttle launch was delayed, when the orbiter crew was leaving NASA's Florida
spacewalk aboard on of the agency's T-38 training jets. But in both reports, he
stressed, the astronauts or flight surgeons with concerns felt their input was
disregarded, as the spaceflyers in question were
ultimately allowed to fly.
"We cannot say with any certainty whether they, in fact,
were at all under the influence or affected at the time they flew,"
Bachmann said of the astronauts in question, who were not named in the report,
nor were the times, dates or specific missions of each account. "The issue
of concern was that the medical advisors or the peers, who should be empowered
to raise questions, felt like they were not."
Only about four paragraphs of the 12-page report were
devoted to alcohol use of astronauts before flight.
Based on the recommendations from the two reports, Dale said
NASA plans to devise an official astronaut code of conduct, as well as include
a behavioral assessment to the annual flight physicals of its spaceflyers. The
agency will also enhance the use of psychological evaluations for future
astronaut selections and strive to ensure that safety concerns can be raised
freely, she added.
NASA launched both astronaut health reviews in the days
following the Feb. 5 arrest of former NASA
astronaut Lisa Nowak. Florida police officers arrested Nowak in a parking
lot at the Orlando International Airport after she allegedly attacked a woman
that authorities said she perceived as a romantic rival for the affections of
then-space shuttle astronaut Williams Oefelein.
Nowak has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted
kidnapping, battery and burglary with assault. NASA dismissed both
Nowak and Oefelein from their astronaut duties earlier this year.
New policy in place
Dale and Ellen Ochoa, NASA's director of flight crew
operations, said an interim spaceflight policy that prohibits astronauts from
drinking alcohol in the 12 hours before a launch is now in place. That policy,
taken from the agency's standing regulations governing flights of its T-38
training aircraft, was previously unofficially applied to human spaceflight,
Ochoa said.
Meanwhile, NASA safety and mission assurance chief Bryan
O'Conner has discussed the new policy with the commander and lead flight surgeon of the agency's next shuttle mission currently set for an
Aug. 7 launch , Dale said.
In the week before launch, a shuttle astronaut crew enters
quarantine to avoid developing sickness in flight. During that time, astronauts
work through prelaunch activities, but their actions are not regulated during
their off-duty time. Alcoholic beverages are freely available at NASA's
astronaut crew quarters, NASA said.
"They are really responsible adults," Dale said of
NASA's astronauts. "After they've finished their regular day of work, if
they want to go back to crew quarters and have a beer I think that's
okay."
In Kazakhstan, where U.S. astronauts and Russian cosmonauts
enter quarantine for up to three weeks before launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome,
there is a preflight ceremony with champagne though NASA officials said they
couldn't recall Americans actually drinking it.
"For them it's a great tradition in their
society," Ochoa said of NASA's Russian counterparts, adding that it dates
back to the first flight of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin nearly 50 years ago. NASA
will talk with its spaceflyers to ensure the traditions of its Russian partners
are properly respected, Ochoa added.
Former astronauts lamented that the report's anonymous
anecdotes of astronaut drinking might tarnish the 26-year reputation of NASA
and its shuttle flying astronaut corps.
"It doesn't fit with anything, anything that I've ever
seen or heard," said former astronaut Tom Jones, who flew on four shuttle
missions between 1994 and 2001. "I flew with about 20 people on four missions
and I never saw anybody with any kind of problem in the hours before
launch."
Jones said that, based on his experience with NASA flight
surgeons and fellow astronauts, he finds it hard to believe that a spaceflyer
would be cleared for flight with a known performance deficit, especially in an
era that has seen two shuttle disasters - Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in
2003 - that ended in astronaut fatalities.
"There's no upside to letting this guy get a
pass," Jones said. "This is where it all comes down to doing the job
and doing it 100 percent effectively."
Space News Staff Writer Brian Berger contributed to this
report from Washington, D.C.
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