My post went through the first time since friday noon!!!

@ Ed Davies: Thanks for clarification with the 12 hour rule. I thought it was ment the way you explained it, but was not sure because I am no native English speaker.
It is very sad that also in Germany the news was spreed the way “drunken Astronauts flying space shuttle”. This will be what people will remeber
Sigh….Wonderful World of Modern Media.
Andre

Plus, NASA is a very inefficient agency as most gov’t agencies are. The fact that it sent people to the Moon doesn’t make it better. It even takes people lives’ over finishing production of a certain “marvel” which is going to be three decades old at the time of completion.

Hoy debería de haber sido un día relajado, incluso feliz, para los responsables de la NASA, ya que según se puede leer en NASA Gives ‘Go’ for Shuttle Endeavour Launch on Aug. 7 el transbordador espacial Endeavour recibía ayer el……

This whole thing reminds me of one of Jeff Foxworthy’s monologues:

“Houston, we’ve got problems. Ed’s done busted out the capsule winda tryin’ to hit a satellite with a beer bottle. And we need to know how to unstop the toilets–the boys ate all the freeze-dried chili and they’re tore up some’in bad!”

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts118/070726frr/

I read ‘…”heavy use of alcohol” by astronauts before launch, within the standard 12-hour “bottle to throttle” rule…’ as meaning heavy use shortly before launch but more than 12 hours before, i.e., staying within compliance with the rule, not as drinking within the 12 hours indicated by the rule. Such are the subtleties of language.

GaterNate: are you talking about getting high? Getting really, really high?

“Finding: Interviews with both flight surgeons and astronauts identified some episodes of heavy use of alcohol by astronauts in the immediate preflight period, which has led to flight safety concerns. Alcohol is freely used in crew quarters. Two specific instances were described where astronauts had been so intoxicated prior to flight that flight surgeons and/or fellow astronauts raised concerns to local on-scene leadership regarding flight safety. However, the individuals were still permitted to fly. The medical certification of astronauts for flight duty is not structured to detect such episodes, nor is any medical surveillance program by itself likely to detect them or change the pattern of alcohol use.”

2c is possibly, however, the most worrying – albeit less headline-worthy:

“Finding: Several senior flight surgeons expressed their belief that their medical opinions regarding astronaut fitness for duty, flight safety and mission accomplishment were not valued by leadership other than to validate that all (medical) systems were “go” for on-time mission completion. Instances were described where major crew medical or behavioral problems were identified to astronaut leadership and the medical advice was disregarded. This disregard was described as “demoralizing” to the point where they said they are less likely to report concerns of performance decrement. Crew members raised concerns regarding substandard astronaut task performance which were similarly disregarded.

“i. Recommendation: NASA senior leadership must ensure and support policies and procedures that allow flight surgeons, trainers, astronaut peers and others to raise concerns to leadership, who in turn respond explicitly and transparently.

In other words, NASA managers have been ignoring advice from the medics to the extent that the medics are wondering if it’s worth telling them! That’s a lot more worrying in my view than a couple of instances where an astronaut got drunk before a flight – it shows a definite pattern of problems rather than what might have been isolated incidents.

That’s why I’d pass a j around the cabin at about T-4:20.

Ever fly to the ISS? Ever fly to the ISS,……on weeeeed???

Evan

I hope they will not burn them on the stack or hang them in public. It’s like everyone knows alcohol is around and after something like this happens shouts ” Oh my god, I did not know someone really drinks this stuff”.

I don’t think they really were “drunk” in the way I would understand the meaning of the word.

Andre

“The people of America cheered their brains out for thirty minutes or so, and then you went back into your noble isolation for more work … or for a few proficiency runs at nailing down the holy coordinates of the fighter jock’s life, which were, of course, Flying & Drinking and Drinking & Driving and the rest of it. These things you could plot on the great graph of the Project Mercury in the most spectacular way, with the exception of the first: Flying.
“…
“They enjoyed the rude animal health of youth. They put their bodies through dreadful abuses, often in the form of drinking bouts followed by lack of sleep and mortal hangovers, and they still performed like champions. (‘I don’t advise it, you understand, but it CAN be done’–provided you have the right stuff, you miserable pudknocker.)”

Pages 109-110, if you’re interested.

Who did the AF get to investigate Hard copy?

Breaking News NASA says it has found wires which may have been deliberately cut on computers bound for the international space station.