Astronauts Flew Drunk!
At least twice, astronauts were allowed to fly after flight surgeons and other astronauts warned they were so drunk they posed a flight-safety risk, an aviation weekly reported Thursday, citing a special panel studying astronaut health.
The independent panel found “heavy use of alcohol” before launch, according to Aviation Week & Space Technology, which reported the finding on its Web site.
The alcohol use by astronauts was within the standard 12-hour “bottle-to-throttle” rule applied to NASA flight crew members, Aviation Week said. The panel was created following the arrest in February of former space shuttle flier Lisa Nowak, who was implicated in a love triangle. Read more
