Ballardian

And finally, more on the mad astronaut meme, with this disturbing vision of pissed-up ‘nauts cavorting in space:

America’s space programme suffered unexpected turbulence yesterday when a revelation that astronauts were allowed to fly on the shuttle while drunk was followed by news of sabotage to the cargo of a forthcoming mission. Nasa officials are expected to confirm today that there have been at least two occasions when crew members were so intoxicated before their launch that they were deemed a flight safety risk.
…
The drinking claims come in a report commissioned by the space agency to investigate the behaviour of its astronauts in the wake of the arrest of shuttle crew member Lisa Nowak in February for allegedly stalking and attacking a love rival.

The panel discovered “heavy use of alcohol” by unspecified astronauts in the 12-hour period before a shuttle launch, according to Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine, which says it obtained an advance copy of the report.

The agency’s “bottle-to-throttle” rule prohibits any Nasa employee from drinking alcohol in the hours before a lift-off, yet at least two astronauts were apparently allowed to fly despite warnings from flight surgeons and colleagues that they were too intoxicated.”

[again -- thanks, Ben!]

If you compare this news item with the ’strangle her before she strangles you’ entry, the question is begged: why can’t you be drunk on a simulated space flight? Surely, for realism’s sake, this would be A-OK.