CAPE
CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A NASA investigation into alleged alcohol abuse among
astronauts has turned up nothing for at least the last decade, the U.S. space
agency said Wednesday.
"We've
gone through the last 10 years of shuttle flights, and we haven't found
anything," NASA spokesperson David Mould of the agency's Washington, D.C.,
headquarters, told SPACE.com
here at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
Mould spoke as NASA primes the space shuttle Endeavour for an evening launch tonight toward the International Space Station
at 6:36 p.m. EDT (2236 GMT) from KSC's Pad 39A.
Thorough
look
Mould said
the space agency is looking through both written records and personnel
interviews across its 26-year shuttle history to investigate
allegations of astronauts using alcohol prior to space and training
missions.
NASA
launched the investigation in July after an independent health panel reported
at least two incidents in which astronauts were said to be intoxicated within
the 12-hour period before spaceflights.
U.S. Air
Force Col. Richard Bachmann, Jr., a veteran flight surgeon who chaired the
panel, said the two alleged incidents revolved around an astronaut who flew a
NASA T-38 jet after a scrubbed shuttle launch attempt, as well as a spaceflyer
preparing for a Russian Soyuz launch to the International Space Station (ISS).
But the panel did not name specific missions, dates or astronauts in its
report, he added.
In the wake
of the findings, released July 27, NASA began investigating the
panel's anonymous reports. Meanwhile, officials with Russia's Federal Space Agency have denied
that its Soyuz flyers have flown while drunk.
"Anything
we can possibly think of, we want to find out what the facts are," Mould
said. "If there's something there, we'll find it."
NASA first
called for an independent review of its astronaut health program, as well as a
parallel internal audit, earlier this year after the arrest of now-former
astronaut Lisa Nowak. Nowak, a mission specialist on NASA's STS-121 return to
flight mission in July 2006, was arrested by police at the Orlando
International Airport for allegedly attacking a romantic rival for the
affections of space shuttle pilot William Oefelein.
Nowak has
pleaded not guilty to attempted kidnapping, battery and other charges. NASA dismissed her
and Oefelein, both U.S. Navy officers, from their astronaut posts earlier
this year.
Incomplete
assessment
With the
current investigation still under way, it is too early to discuss possible
punishments for spaceflyers should the allegations prove true, Mould said. NASA
officials hope to conclude the investigation by the end of the month, he added.
"We're
shooting for the end of August, but [we] might be able to finish sooner than
that," Mould said. "We weren't given any parameters of how old these
things actually were. We'll go as far back as we need to."
Meanwhile,
NASA is counting down to the Endeavour's planned launch.
Commanded
by veteran shuttle flyer Scott Kelly, Endeavour's seven-astronaut crew is
charged with delivering a fresh batch of cargo, a hefty spare parts platform
and a new starboard-side piece of the space station's main truss to the ISS
during an up to 14-day mission.
The crew
also includes former McCall, Idaho, schoolteacher
Barbara Morgan, now a full-fledged educator astronaut, who is making her
first flight since joining NASA's ranks 22 years ago as the agency's backup
Teacher in Space. Morgan trained alongside NASA's prime Teacher in Space, New
Hampshire educator Christa McAuliffe, who died with six astronauts when their
space shuttle Challenger broke apart just after launch in January 1986.
Morgan
returned to NASA in 1998 and is one of four educator astronauts in the
space agency's astronaut corps.
SPACE.com Staff Writer Dave Mosher reported
from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Staff Writer Tariq Malik contributed to this
report from New York City.
NASA is
broadcasting the launch of space shuttle Endeavour live on NASA TV. Click here for STS-118 mission
updates and SPACE.com's NASA TV feed.
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