Recent claims that NASA astronauts flew drunk are not true, agency officials say after interviewing hundreds of personnel and reviewing records going back 20 years. NASA administrator Michael Griffin likened the claims to urban myths.
Nonetheless, NASA is tightening its oversight of astronaut health issues, Griffin said during a press conference on Wednesday. The agency is drawing up a code of conduct for astronauts and is considering alcohol testing. Employees are also being encouraged to report any concerns about astronaut health and safety 鈥� anonymously if necessary.
NASA officials are due to appear before a US congressional committee on 6 September to talk about the results of the independent review of astronaut health care, which was released in July and includes allegations that drunk astronauts were allowed to fly.
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One claim involved a crewmember who flew a training jet after a shuttle launch was delayed. The other concerned an astronaut heading to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. According to the report, that drunk astronaut had to be looked after by a flight surgeon the night before launch.
However, Griffin says interviews with a flight surgeon on the scene paint a very different picture. 鈥淭hat anecdotal story did not happen,鈥� Griffin says. 鈥淭here was not an impaired crewmember. There was not a flight surgeon that felt that he or she needed to stay with the crew member and monitor his or her status to stop them from injuring themselves.鈥�
鈥淚 certainly feel badly that our astronauts鈥� reputations have been besmirched by this,鈥� he added.
Temporary insanity
The independent review was ordered after astronaut Lisa Nowak tried to attack a romantic rival in February.
She is now facing assault, battery and attempted kidnapping charges. Her lawyer says Nowak suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder and Asperger鈥檚 Syndrome, and was depressed when she set upon a woman in an airport parking lot in Florida, US. He plans to argue that she was temporarily insane during the attack.
Griffin says NASA will now give flight surgeons more training in behavioural health and make behavioural health assessments part of astronauts鈥� annual physicals.
Anonymous reports
The NASA review was carried out by Bryan O鈥機onnor, the agency鈥檚 chief of safety and mission assurance. Griffin acknowledged that as a former astronaut, O鈥機onnor isn鈥檛 a disinterested third party, but said he was the most knowledgeable and trustworthy person to investigate the issues raised by the independent review committee.
O鈥機onnor says he spoke to all of NASA鈥檚 current flight surgeons, most of its current astronauts, and many former crewmembers to investigate the claims of drunkenness. He also interviewed dozens of people involved in pre-launch activities at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and at the Soyuz launch site in Kazakhstan.
He searched about 1500 anonymous reports relating to astronaut safety, and 鈥渢ens of thousands鈥� of accounts of near mishaps and close calls going back to 1987, he says: 鈥淚 made sure I had at least one person who could speak up for every flight going back 20 years.鈥�
NASA is also sending an anonymous survey to people present during launch preparations, which O鈥機onnor says 鈥渨ill help flush out any additional concerns鈥�.
