Sep 6 2007
From The Space Library
The House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics held a hearing to review the findings of two reports that NASA had made public on 27 July 2007. The reports examined NASA’s medical and behavioral health care system for its astronauts. The NASA Astronaut Health Care System Review had identified a number of issues related to NASA culture, communication, and behavioral concerns, including some astronauts’ alleged preflight alcohol abuse. However, NASA’s internal JSC review had contradicted the finding, stating that the investigators had been unable to verify any instance of alcohol abuse. At the hearing, Richard E. Bachmann Jr., Chair of the Astronaut Health Care System Review Committee, stated that NASA’s rebuttal of reports and derision of the claims that astronauts had imbibed alcohol during the preflight alcohol-restriction period had discouraged open communication. Moreover, Bachmann expressed deep concern about NASA’s apparent disregard of mental health and behavior issues among astronauts and about the reluctance of flight surgeons and astronauts alike to report improper conduct. Subcommittee Chair Mark E. Udall (D-CO) remarked that the findings of the two panels seemed to describe two different organizations. Udall instructed NASA to present a credible plan and accompanying timetable for implementing the NASA Astronaut Health Care System Review Committee’s recommendations, including the most controversial one, related to the allegations that some astronauts had drunk alcohol shortly before flight. NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin, who had compared the alcohol allegations to urban legends, testified that NASA was already in the process of addressing the committee’s concerns. At the time of the hearing, NASA was preparing an anonymous survey to assist in identifying its employees’ continuing concerns about safety issues and about other review committee findings.
U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Science and Technology, Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, “Subcommittee Questions NASA on Health Care of Astronaut Corps,” news release, 6 September 2007, http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/pagedetails.action?browsePath=110%2FHOUSE%2FCommittee+on+Science+and+Technology&granuleId=CHRG-110hhrg37640&packageId=CHRG-110hhrg37640&fromBrowse=true (accessed 11 January 2011); U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Science and Technology, Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, NASA’s Astronaut Health Care System—Results of an Independent Review, 110th Cong., 1st sess., 6 September 2007; Eun Kyung Kim, “Fear May Be NASA Problem,” Florida Today (Brevard, FL), 7 September 2007.
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