NASA Blasts Rumors of Drunken Astronauts

US space agency dismisses inebriation allegations as 'urban legends'

By Wesley Oliver, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 29, 2007 6:20 PM CDT

Copied

NASA Blasts Rumors of Drunken Astronauts — Clouds gather over the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, June 22, 2007. NASA managers kept close tabs on the weather Friday as thunderstorms and low clouds threatened to prevent space shuttle Atlantis and its seven astronauts from landing after a... (Associated Press)

NASA said today there is no truth to allegations that several astronauts were drunk as they were blasted into space, the Miami Herald reports. A month after an independent panel reported vague accounts of astronauts drunk on the job, space agency officials said interviews and a review of 20 years' worth records found nothing to support the claim.

Officials said astronauts do have access to alcohol in their crew quarters, but their report cited NASA’s “culture of professionalism” guards against abuse. "The highly visible, structured and supervised schedule during the last several days prior to launch provide reasonable controls to avoid flying an alcohol-impaired crew member," the report added. (More NASA stories.)

Report an error