Astronauts still on drinking defensive

Dr. Jonathan Clark, a former NASA flight surgeon whose astronaut wife, Laurel, died aboard Columbia, said he saw plenty of partying in the few days before launch.

"It really got to be kind of crazy," he said, when missions were abruptly scrubbed — a common occurrence because of changing weather or mechanical problems.

"You have this buildup of tension. You go out there and then it gets scrubbed, then you don't know when you're going to go. ... There were definitely times when people drank during that period. Duh. But I don't think it was ever an issue before a mission, like the day of or the day before."

There still is no conclusive evidence that astronauts, at Cape Canaveral or on Soyuz flights from Kazakhstan, were intoxicated right before launch.

NASA's own hunt for details came up empty after poring through 20 years' worth of records and contacting key players.

The chairman of the independent astronaut health panel that issued the report, Air Force Col. Richard Bachmann Jr., contends the sources of the confidential information are too afraid to speak up.

NASA is following up with an anonymous survey of its astronauts and flight surgeons. At the same time, the space agency hopes to have in place by year's end a code of conduct that spells out the prelaunch drinking ban.

"If there was anything that created a problem for us, frankly it was the report," said retired Air Force Col. Pamela Melroy, the commander of the upcoming mission on Discovery.

Warranted or not, Clark believes this year's turbulence is an opportunity for NASA and, in particular, its astronaut corps to improve.

"It's like a football team that's got a really bad record. You've got to pull yourself up and reinvent yourself and do a better job," he said. "In my estimation, it could be one of the best things that happens to NASA."

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