NASA finds no evidence of inebriated astronauts

An internal NASA investigation spurred by allegations of heavy alcohol use by U.S. astronauts before flight uncovered no evidence to verify the claims, the agency will announce today.

The investigation spanned 94 shuttle missions and 10 Russian-American Soyuz flights from Kazakhstan over a period dating back to the 1986 Challenger accident. NASA Safety Chief Bryan O'Connor found no proof that U.S. astronauts drank alcohol prior to boarding a spacecraft or aircraft.

"I was unable to verify any case where a spaceflight crewmember was impaired on launch day, or where there was disregard by managers of a flight surgeon or co-crewmember recommendation that a crewmember not fly Shuttle or Soyuz," said O'Connor, a highly regarded flight safety czar and former shuttle mission commander and pilot.

"Should such a situation present itself in the future, I am confident that there are reasonable safeguards in place to prevent an impaired crewmember from boarding a spacecraft," he said.

Download a copy of the full report below.

An independent medical panel formed in the wake of the Feb. 5 arrest of former astronaut Lisa Nowak uncovered anecdotal evidence of heavy alcohol use among astronauts prior to flight.

The panel cited two incidents in which an impaired astronaut was allowed to fly despite warnings that flight safety might be jeopardized. One allegedly involved an astronaut flying to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The other allegedly involved an astronaut flying a NASA T-38 training jet after a U.S. space shuttle launch attempt was scrubbed at Kennedy Space Center.

The panel, however, did not attempt to verify the claims.

The O'Connor investigation found that alcohol is available in crew quarters both at Kennedy Space Center and at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Beer and wine are consumed during off-duty hours, but there was no evidence that U.S. astronauts or Russian cosmonauts have shown up drunk for a spaceflight.

Furthermore, the report noted that flight surgeons performing standard medical checks on launch day would be able to detect any astronauts or cosmonaut who was impaired.

Also noted is the fact the astronauts and cosmonauts at Kennedy Space Center are surrounded suit-up technicians, flight surgeons, managers and staff, and that live TV cameras follow them from the suit-up room to NASA's "astrovan" and then the white room where they board an orbiter at the launch pad.

The full report provides an unprecedented and interesting look at crew quarters and the actitities the astronauts gto through in the days leading up to launch.

You can download the document here: AstronautAlcoholUseReport.pdf

NASA's Inspector General will review the results of the O'Connor investigation and conduct any follow-up deemed necessary.

IMAGE NOTE: Clicn to enlarge the NASA image of the STS-118 astronauts departing crew quarters at the Kennedy Space Center Operations & Checkout building during a practice countdown for their Aug. 8 launch on a mission to the International Space Station. Endeavour commander Scott Kelly (front row, right) is waving. Pilot Charlie Hobaugh (second row, left) and mission specialist Tracy Caldwell (second row, right) are smiling. Mission specialists Rick Mastracchio (third row, left) and Dave Williams of the Canadian Space Agency (third row, right) are following. Not pictured are mission specialists Barbara Morgan and Al Drew.