Ethics Newsline®

HOUSTON
NASA received another blow to its reputation last week as a panel investigating the agency charged that two astronauts had been drunk immediately before a flight but were cleared for blast-off anyway after officials dismissed the concerns of flight surgeons.

Newsweek reports that an independent review panel’s report concluded that in two incidents, 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 flight surgeons told the panel they were “demoralized” after their recommendations were ignored and are less likely to report concerns in the future.

While NASA did not immediately confirm or deny the incidents, or provide names and other details, deputy NASA administrator Shana Dale said the agency would ramp up its supervision of the astronaut corps and develop a formal code of conduct, according to a report from CBS News space analyst William Harwood.

The review panel that leveled the drinking charges was set up to monitor the mental health of astronauts after former astronaut Lisa Nowak was accused of making a bizarre cross-country trip in order to assault a romantic rival, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The Times notes that some former astronauts have expressed skepticism about the report, insisting that they have never witnessed in-flight drunkenness and that fliers are so closely monitored that such behavior would have been flagged at several levels.

The latest incident echoes past cases where NASA dismissed the concerns of knowledgeable low-level employees in the rush to report all systems go, according to an analysis from the Associated Press. “Four years ago,” writes AP reporter Marcia Dunn, the culture of dismissing concerns “involved higher-ups ignoring engineers who feared possible catastrophic damage to the shuttle Columbia. The engineers were right.”

In addition to its other troubles, NASA is also probing the sabotage of a computer that was to be installed in the International Space Station next month. NASA confirmed late last week that a worker at a subcontractor’s plant deliberately cut wires on the computer, according to a report from National Public Radio.