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Subject: Dark day for NASA...
Time: 3:23:00 AM EDT
Author: stuartatk
You know how sometimes you wish you'd just stayed in bed, so many things go wrong? Well, NASA had one of those days yesterday, when no fewer than THREE "What?!?!?!?!?" stories made news headlines all around the world. I bet NASA bosses were checking it wasn't actually Friday the 13th instead of Thursday the 26th...
First to hit the news was a story that alleged several NASA shuttle astronauts had flown whilst still suffering from the effects of drinking alcohol, causing - in at least one case - their controllers and fellow crew members to have serious concerns. Drunk astronauts? Some kind of joke, surely...?!
Second came news that an attempt to sabotage a computer unit bound for the space station had been foiled. An employee - not a NASA employee, I hasten to add, but an employee from a contractor - had apparently tampered with a computer unit scheduled to go up to ISS on the next shuttle flight by cutting wires.
Finally news broke that a NASA employee is being charged with stealing $150,000 from the agency, embezzling it from their accounts.
Unbelievable... just unbelievable...
Hard to know how to react to all this. IF this "drunk astronauts" story is true (and I'm hoping someone is adding 2 and 2 and getting 50 here, because details are sketchy so far) then the drink thing isn't a huge surprise to me, not after reading "Riding Rockets" (excellent book! very eye-opening 
) and while part of me thinks "Hmm, they're not gods, only human... under stress... kinda human nature..." and reminds myself hwhat hellraisers the early astronauts were (watch "The Right Stuff" and you'll see what I mean) another part of me wants to grab the metal helmet rings of the suit of ANYONE doing something dumb enough to put a shuttle and its crew at risk, slam 'em up against a wall and shout at them "What the **** were you thinking?!?!? You get to fly into space AS A JOB you lucky ******!!! I'd KILL for that! " 
As for the possibility of an individual cutting the wires, words fail me. Again, IF true, this is a scary story. Their motives are unknown, but I'm sure imaginations will run riot.
The financial thing is just a shame, but again, that's just sadly human nature, a greedy person taking advantage of an opportunity to get their hands on some cash, so not much more to be said about that. She's been caught, charged, and is in big trouble.
What a day, what a day... I'm just gutted that at such an exciting, important time for NASA, with Barbara Morgan finally ready to fly, and Phoenix poised to blast off for Mars, this kind of garbage is going to dominate the headlines instead. and 
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7/27/07 10:34 AM
NASA will have problems just like every other instuition. People believe that they should be the exception. That isn't how life is. There will always be rogues in the ranks. I just hope people don't begin to chop down the tree because of a few bad apples. We all should be better than that. Tammy