Naughty Alien Saboteurs on Alcohol

[Alberon]

Two bits of news today about NASA.

Firstly it looks like someone has sabotaged a computer destined for the International Space Station.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/26/nasa.computers.reut/index.html

The U.S. space agency NASA on Thursday confirmed it had discovered the apparent sabotage of a noncritical component of the international space station due to be carried up by the space shuttle Endeavour. It launched an investigation after finding cut wires in a piece of computer equipment intended to transfer data from station sensors to the ground, the agency said.

Maybe it's ET trying to stop the primitive race of man spreading his warlike nature to the stars?

Perhaps a little more alarming is the fact that Astronauts have been allowed to fly while way over the limit.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/07/26/astronaut.drinking.ap/index.html

Astronauts were allowed to fly after flight surgeons and other astronauts warned they were so drunk they posed a flight-safety risk on at least two occasions, an aviation weekly reported Thursday.

An independent panel reportedly found that flight surgeons allowed intoxicated astronauts to fly on space shuttle.

It cited a special panel studying astronaut health, which found "heavy use of alcohol" before launch that was within the standard 12-hour "bottle-to-throttle" rule, according to Aviation Week & Space Technology. It reported the finding on its Web site.

A NASA official confirmed the health report contains claims of alcohol use by astronauts before launch, but said the information is based on anonymous interviews and is unsubstantiated. The official didn't want to be named because NASA plans a news conference Friday to discuss the panel's findings.

A lot of the take-off is automated, but it's still a bit of a worry when you realise the Shuttle is effectively a flying bomb with all the fuel on board.