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Pat Duggins
Pat Duggins
Senior News Analyst
pduggins@wmfe.org


 

nasa ISS booze 15%August 9, 2007-- The crew of Space Shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to rendezvous and dock with the International Space Station today. This picture was taken during Discovery's docking flight on STS-121. The seven Endeavour astronauts on this current mission make up the first crew under what NASA Headquarters calls its new "bottle to throttle" policy. Safety Chief Bryan O’Connor met with Shuttle Commander Scott Kelly before launch to acquaint him with the new rules that state astronauts should not drink alcohol for twelve hours before liftoff.

The rule change follows an independent review panel, which quotes "anecdotal evidence" that on at least two occasions astronauts were cleared for flight after drinking heavily. The notion of astronauts going on "benders" before liftoff is not being welcomed by NASA or the astronaut corp. Administrator Mike Griffin says the idea of astronauts getting tipsy pre-launch doesn’t make sense since, like Endeavour’s crew, the astronauts were surrounded by people from when they wake up to when the hatch was shut on the shuttle. "They would have had to really wanted a drink, and hide it really well," he says. NASA still plans to investigate the allegations and has spoken to astronauts on missions going back ten years.

Endeavour commander Scott Kelly says the idea that any astronaut would drink before launch is "ridiculous".

Nuff said.

earthrise NASA apollo 8The last time booze on a space mission made this much news, to my recollection, is Apollo 8. That was the flight where Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders flew around the Moon over Christmas. They took the famous "Earthrise" photograph that’s adorned everything from posters to postage stamps. According to NASA lore, Chief Astronaut Deke Slayton had a holiday dinner packed for the crew when they were circling the Moon, including three small bottles of brandy. That apparently didn’t go over well with Commander Frank Borman and the bottles remained tightly closed for the duration of the mission.

Photos courtesy of NASA

 

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