SubscribeSabotage? Astronauts Flying Drunk? At NASA?
From a delighted Reuters:
NASA probes sabotage, report says pilots flew drunk
By Irene Klotz
Florida (Reuters) - NASA is investigating sabotage of a noncritical computer due to be flown to the International Space Station aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, which was cleared to lift off on August 7, the U.S. space agency said on Thursday.
NASA revealed the sabotage a day ahead of releasing studies that the publication Aviation Week reported had found astronauts were allowed to fly on at least two occasions despite warnings they were so drunk they posed a flight risk.
The damage to wiring in an electronics box was intentional and obvious, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations, Bill Gerstenmaier told reporters at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA found cut cables inside the electronics box, which was being prepared to be loaded into Endeavour’s crew cabin for transport to the $100 billion space station.
NASA was told of the sabotage by a subcontractor, which Gerstenmaier declined to identify, citing an investigation by the Office of the Inspector General.
“It was disclosed to us as soon as the event occurred, about a week and a half ago,” Gerstenmaier said. “The damage is very obvious, easy to detect. It’s not a mystery to us.”
NASA managers believe there is ample time to repair the computer before Endeavour’s liftoff on August 7. The shuttle is scheduled to spend up to 10 days at the space station to install a new structural beam and deliver supplies…
The damage is believed to be the first act of sabotage of flight equipment NASA has discovered, Gerstenmaier and shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said.
The NASA officials declined to discuss Aviation Week’s report that a panel had found that astronauts were allowed to fly drunk at least twice, despite objections from colleagues and flight surgeons.
The publication said the panel, set up by NASA to study astronaut health issues after the arrest in February of former astronaut Lisa Nowak on assault charges, also reported “heavy use of alcohol” by astronauts within 12 hours of launch, which is against NASA rules…
Is nothing sacred?
17 Responses to “Sabotage? Astronauts Flying Drunk? At NASA?”
Leave a Reply
You must be registered and logged in to post a comment.
July 26th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
How sad, indeed. The space program is one of our country’s greatest accomplishments. Too bad that some idiot needs some revenge or attention. Maybe he’ll get a ’special friend’ in prison that will give him (or her) all the attention he (or she) so greatly craves.
Ad astra per aspera.
July 26th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
I’d need a drink before launching. Is a hangover worse at gravity or in weightlessness?
What have we here….a new victim group?
Drunk at Mission Control? Yeah, I’d be worried.
July 26th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Sabotagey heh, Maybe like our new freind the Colonel said Him/her might meet a friend in prison with the right stuff.
And somebody is gonna say it and it might as well be me.
Houston, We have a hangover!
July 26th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
will slurring senator ted k, our feckless, privileged, booze-addled hero of chappaquiddick, weigh in about the dangers and immorality of astronauts steering expensive rockets or mr. wonderful himself steering his vastly more costly to taxpayers senate welfare legislation while battling hangovers? didn’t think so.
July 26th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
I was going to post that I always thought pilots got high before they got high but hey maybe that is just Army pilots.
Then I read this tripe - sabotage, then a report about astronauts being drunk and then the reference to the Nowak woman - is this the ‘new’ journalistic standard - remember to include every smear in any story about the subject every time?
No wonder the media sucks - When this is over I will bet this has nothing to do with a pyscho love triangle or drunk astronauts but once again they won’t bother to apologize for any and all smears. Ever.
July 26th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
The Space Shuttle program uses kittens as fuel in their booster rockets.
July 26th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
“Then I read this tripe - sabotage, then a report about astronauts being drunk and then the reference to the Nowak woman - is this the ‘new’ journalistic standard - remember to include every smear in any story about the subject every time?”
I think that is exactly the new standard of “journalism.”
And Pulitzer Prizes go to those who manage to work in Nixon and Watergate into every story.
July 26th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
The journalists, “Hack, cough” got a lil taste for humping N.A.S.A. After the crazy stalker stories.
They would love to bleed it a little more, Yes I am sure more than one astronaut has broken the
bottle to throttle rule, But I seriously doubt any falling down drunks have been flying the space shuttle.
The left has always hated the space program, Its money wasted on people that actually do something
worthwhile and helps keep people employed, But the left wants the money spent on welfare trash instead.
The guys cleared to fly the shuttles are not drunken crop dusters, Most come from our military’s best,
So its in my opinion just another way for the media to trash our men and women in uniform.
July 27th, 2007 at 12:49 am
NASA is a disfunctional organization. They seem to be more concerned with PR than actual results. They’d rather send teachers into space than do real, meaningful research. Can someone tell what’s the purpose of the Space Station? The 2003 Columbia disaster highlighted the problems with their “diversity” program; despite a female mission director and racial mixed project team, creative thinking was discouraged, dissent was not allowed, and everyone thought alike. Hardly the stuff of the real problem solvers who built the program, those crew-cut sporting, pocket protector wearing middle-aged white men of the Apollo 13 days, who brought with them a wealth of knowledge and experience from various technical and business backgrounds. Today they probably couldn’t get past their EEOC requirements. An what’s become of military discipline? We heard all about adulterous astronauts and a multi-state stalking incident, which led to attempted murder charges — that should advance the cause of women in combat. And, just a couple months ago there was an actual murder-suicide by a contractor — do they do background checks any more? Now it turns out they don’t even do routine alcohol and drug screens. The program has turned into a typical government boondoggle. It’s only a matter of time before the private sector gets into the act and beats them at their own game.
July 27th, 2007 at 6:28 am
Drunk is the only way you’d ever get me to go on one of those kamikaze - sorry, space shuttle - missions.
July 27th, 2007 at 9:02 am
I am with you artboy and there better be enough on board to keep me that way until I get back on the ground.
July 27th, 2007 at 9:31 am
I am truly amazed at where the current left, liberals and assorted moonbats are going - they are so ‘far off the reservation’ that it just astounds me. NASA/Space was the cornerstone of the JFK years - and now it is nothing but a government boondoggle wasting money?
Of course the current l/l/ams also failed to remember, nor little noted his greatest words - ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.’
Sort of like todays racist/race card players/race baiters Rev Al, Jesse et al - who have forgotten the words of their ‘leader’ MLK
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
I can’t believe how much closer to Stalin, Marxx, and Hitler todays l/l/ams are - and what it means for America. Imagine if Welfare, Medicaid, ACORN and other liberal programs were reported on in such a manner.
Yes, the space program has seemed to stall - but that is more because the people in charge of financing it and supporting it no longer have a vision, a desire to ‘go where no man has gone before’ or even to believe anything good will come of it.
The military, the space program, farming, healthcare, energy - all of these industries can become the basis of greater hope, a better future, more employment, and a stronger America if the damn regulations, enviro wackos and entitlement DNC would just stfu and let us move America forward - again.
July 27th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Good post, Wardmama. The Dems should get back to their roots, understand exactly what equality really means, and stop shooting down the institutions that have made this country so great. I am ashamed to admit it, but I am a registered demoncrat…aargh. (It was a family thing, bunch of liberals who loved JFK, but the party has turned so unAmerican and anti life, it sickens me). Basically it stops me from voting in the primarys, since I rarely vote the demoncratic ticket. One time (at band camp) I voted for Bill Richardson, primarily because he was the only one that came out to our small private university to meet the students. That was also the year I voted for Ronald Reagan, and we all know how THAT turned out :-)!!
July 27th, 2007 at 11:11 am
NASA’s problem is poor management and massive bureaucracy. I wouldn’t fly on the shuttle no matter how much alcohol was in the Tang. We lost Challenger because of a management screw up. It was too cold to launch, so they changed the rules, over the objections of the engineers at Thiokol. Engineers got fired, managers got promoted. Management overrode the scientists on which mirror to use in Hubble, Kodak had test data, Perkin-Elmer did not, but an Important Senator was from P-E’s state, so they used that one. Only cost a couple billion to fix. In 1998, alGore told all government agencies to comply with the Montreal Protocol. So the lapdogs at NASA switched the foam on the main fuel tank to a non-CFC formulation. And saw an immediate 10-fold increase in damage to the orbiter. And one case of 100% damage to Columbia. The foam isn’t as strong, a hunk ripped off and hit the left wing. The woman mission director cancelled the request for hi-res photos of the orbiter after the engineers saw the launch video. Deal with it in post-processing, she said. After they collected all the pieces.
The problem isn’t the crew-cut middle-aged guys with plastic pocket protectors. They still know their stuff. The political suck-up asshats running the shuttle program do not.
July 27th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Old Grouch: how right you are. The foam guys are going nuts trying to placate the enviro-weenies. PC over science. Reminds me of Global Warming, er, uh, climate change. No wait, it’s a Global Climate Crisis - that should cover it.
Oh yeah, and it killed several astronauts. Thank goodness it didn’t harm any trees or Snail Darters. Oy vey!
July 27th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
This was a slug to the gut for me….I’ve looked up the people in our space program for decades. Heck, my first arithmetic lesson was counting to ten when Apollo 11 launched.
August 3rd, 2007 at 2:38 pm
“Gunny sacking” is a term used to describe the tactic of listing every little flaw or wrong-doing ever of your husband or children and bringing it up every time you feel out of control–or just mildly irritated. When you’re really angry, you tie them to the bed and burn the house down around them! It seems that our mainstream media is beginning to realize just how marginalized they are–and they’re mad as hell and not going to take it any more!
I need to see that Aviation Week article on “drunk astronauts.” Was it by survey? Who wrote the article? Was it peer-reviewed? Did the survey question go something like: “are you now or were you ever–” oops, wrong witch hunt! Did the survey question ask if the astronaut ever drank while a passenger aboard a commercial airliner? What position aboard the shuttle was the “lush” occupying? What was the blood alcohol count? A second-hand account of a secret NASA panel report doesn’t inspire high confidence in me.
“The damage is believed to be the first act of sabotage of flight equipment NASA has discovered, Gerstenmaier and shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said.” Not true. You won’t get NASA to ‘fess up on this one, because of national security issues. Besides, there were severe problems with projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo, as well as the Space Shuttle–those were jsut the manned projects. Did you hear the one about the enviromental activist who infiltrated on the Kennedy Space Center and damaged launch equipment during the 1980’s to prevent “ecology-damaging launches” that degraded wetland habitat and punched holes in the ozone layer? The peace protests in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s at both Kennedy and Johnson Space Centers protesting America’s war machine? NASA has had enemies all along. It may be that some of those enemies are now NASA top management.