Response to "Who cares?"
Who cares? Everybody should! Astronauts, whether rightly or wrongly, are some of the most highly respected people in society and now we find NASA doesn't give a monkey about what they get up to? Few businesses tolerate alcohol in the workplace yet it's alright for astronauts responsible for multi-million dollar equipment to be rat-arsed? I know that cancelling or delaying a flight is incredibly costly but there should be reserve pilots ready to take over at a moment’s notice - the drunken pilots should then lose their jobs and not receive any settlement. With British pilots there was (and still is?) a requirement to not drink 48hrs before potentially flying - so you could manage a heavy Friday night but if you were on duty the following Monday you couldn't drink from Saturday morning onwards (even though you might not end up flying). Surely something of that order would be common sense for NASA? They are meant to be the best of the best but now NASA has been exposed for the big-boy's club that it is.
NASA is a joke - it serves little purpose and the PR value wore off long ago. It's time it was shut down and the money was diverted to something constructive. Heck, at least the "War on Terror" is effective at subsidising the US arms industry - NASA is just a money funnel that blows out bad PR at random intervals. Sadly we can expect money for these pricks to be increased as China kick starts its space program and the US tries desperately to save face, already damaged by the notion that the moon landings were faked.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
