NASA Investigation Finds No Drunken Astronauts

Jan. 23, 2008 — -- After completing an internal investigation, NASA denied that a report released last year stating that astronauts were drunk while flying had any merit, the agency said in a report today.

After this summer's original report, which was conducted originally at the agency's request, NASA interviewed 91 percent of its astronauts and flight surgeons and found no evidence of any astronauts drinking while in flight.

"In response to a direct question regarding personal observations, all respondents reported never witnessing a crew member consume alcohol, on launch day, in the time leading up to launch," the report, released online, stated.

"So far we haven't uncovered an issue," Ellen Ochoa, deputy director, Johnson Space Center, said in a news conference about the report today.

"We're always interested in any factor that could affect crew performance and we would follow up on anything that we thought would affect performance. … Astronauts are very professional and when they're preparing for launch, they prepare for it as the most serious endeavor of our lives," Ochoa said.

The external 2007 report was prepared at NASA's request by an outside panel of doctors, engineers and present and former astronauts after the arrest of former astronaut Lisa Nowak.

Nowak was arrested Feb. 5, 2007, in Orlando, Fla., and charged with the attempted kidnapping of U.S. Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman, the girlfriend of astronaut William Oefelein, in an apparent love triangle confrontation. Her case is currently pending in a Florida court.

The panel, chaired by Air Force Col. Richard Bachmann, talked to astronauts and others who worked with them, granting them anonymity when appropriate.

The July 2007 report stated that there were two incidents involving inebriated astronauts during shuttle flight. The report, however, did not name the astronauts, the dates or specify what kinds of flights were involved.

The report's mention of alcohol use by astronauts on launch day leaked the day before the panel released its findings and made front-page news.