NASA Reportedly Allowed Drunken Astronauts to Fly

DUI (Driving Under the Influence - of Alcohol) is a serious offense that will leave you without a license when caught and could even put you in jail. It seems astronauts were not landing anywhere, but they were allowed to launch, while drunk, on at least two occasions, said an independent panel by NASA

Aviation Week reported that the panel, set up by NASA to study astronaut health issues, found evidence of "heavy use of alcohol" in less than 12 hours before launches and astronauts were allowed to fly despite warning from surgeons and other astronauts, saying that the ones involved were so drunk they posed a flight risk.

A source who has seen the panel's draft report spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity because NASA did not provide authorization to discuss the report and said that it referred to the two occasions based only on internal "anecdotal reports, rather than hard evidence such as blood tests."

"Astronauts used to get away with all manner of rule-breaking back in the 1980s and 1990s, when NASA top managers used the astronaut office as their auxiliary drinking team, baseball team and dating service," said NBC News space analyst James Oberg, a 22-year veteran of NASA's Mission Control. "That has largely been cleaned up under the last two administrators."

No astronauts were named in the draft report and a spokeswoman at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston would not comment on it, but said the agency would release the findings of "two reviews regarding astronaut medical and behavioral health assessments" at a press conference on Friday in Washington.

Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human spaceflight, denied any mention of "drunk flying" during a news briefing on the shuttle Endeavour's upcoming launch, saying that no such incidents were reported during a shuttle mission since he's in charge.

"There's not been a disciplinary action or anything I've been involved with regarding this type of activity," he said.