NASA: No Inebriated Astronauts in Last 10 Years
"I have a problem at this point giving it much credence," Mike Griffin said.
Aug. 8, 2007 — -- NASA's initial investigation into allegations that astronauts were drunk before a space flight has so far found no evidence that any astronaut was ever inebriated before a shuttle launch.
NASA administrator Mike Griffin told ABC News that he was skeptical of the drinking allegations, which were issued in a report by the commission NASA chartered to look into the mental health care given to astronauts.
"My reaction is irrelevant. We are going to pursue the truth wherever it leads us. That is important to me. It's crucially important to me," Griffin said. "These are serious charges. If we find truth at the bottom of them we'll deal with it, but I have a problem at this point giving it much credence."
The paragraphs in the report that created the uproar included a few sentences relating secondhand stories about crew members drinking before space flights. The report, however, did not provide specific evidence to substantiate those stories.
Griffin said that NASA safety administrator Bryan O'Connor investigated the last 10 years of space shuttle flights and found no evidence of astronauts who were inebriated prior to launch.
The external report was prepared at NASA's request by an outside panel of doctors, engineers and present and former astronauts. The report did not name the astronauts, the dates or specify what kinds of flights were involved. But several sources who had been briefed on the report told ABC News that they were told at least one of the incidents involved a shuttle mission.
NASA said O'Connor interviewed as many shuttle crew members as possible, their flight surgeons, the closeout crews, quarantine quarter crews and flight teams. He also examined documentation for those fights.
NASA's investigation will work its way back to the first shuttle flight in 1981 and will be completed by the end of August.
On Monday, Cmdr. Scott Kelly, who will be piloting this week's shuttle mission aboard Endeavour, sent a letter to several media outlets, including ABCNEWS.com, expressing his thoughts on the outside report.
"We have trained our entire lives to get to this point in our astronaut careers and clearly understand the complexity and the risks involved," he wrote. "It is beyond my comprehension that anyone in the astronaut office would consider doing what is suggested in this report and exaggerated in the press -- showing up on launch day under the influence of alcohol. This is serious business and we take it as such."
When the initial report was released two weeks ago, NASA announced at a news conference that it would develop a written code of conduct concerning the use of alcohol.
ABC News' Ned Potter contributed to this report.