Russian Space Agency denies US astronauts drank before flight

Moscow, July 28: Russian Space Agency (Roskosmos) today denied the possibility that any drunk US astronaut flew into orbit from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan. ''This is completely out of question. Practically two weeks before any flight from Baikonur, cosmonauts and astronauts are put under continuous medical surveillance,'' the spokesman for the Roskosmos Igor Panarin told Interfax news agency.

Panarin said during the last 48 hours before the flight, ''they are isolated from all external contacts.'' He was commenting on the media reports that NASA found astronauts had shown up to work drunk.The US space agency faced a crisis as US lawmakers today promised to probe how NASA allowed astronauts to fly missions while drunk as well as the sabotage of in-flight computers.
--- UNI