Charles Krauthammer goes to bat for them. I do think that this story is overblown, but he overstates the "spam in a can" argument. Like airline pilots, Shuttle pilots need to have a clear head at launch, in the event of an abort. As for the rest of the crew, it probably wouldn't hurt much if they were mildly intoxicated, but the notion that one has to have a couple stiff ones to climb into the Shuttle (or the Soyuz) seems a little silly to me, regardless of how many times the joke is repeated, and he seems to be serious about it. Maybe some of the pilots in the Battle of Britain wouldn't have been able to pass a breathalyzer test, but if so, their chances of killing the enemy, or getting home, would have been sharply reduced compared to their sober colleagues.

And he has entirely much too much faith in NASA to execute the vision, even if it gets support from the politicians.

...regardless of how many times the joke is repeated...

Of course the best joke was Bill Dana's as "Jose Jimenez".

"So tell us about the blast-off."

"Well, I always have a blast before I go off. 'Cause I wouldn't get into that thing sober, believe me..."

But twice as funny to me was:

"So is this your crash helmet?"

"Gee, I hope not."

I disagree with Krauthammer's reasoning, but I do think astronauts deserve a little defense. I simply wonder how much drinking an astronaut would have to do in order to stay drunk through the entire processing in the O&C, the ride out to the pad, and then hours spent waiting for launch. I conceed Rand's point (and I'm sure NASA's point about hazard to spaceflight) about pad aborts and the need for all onboard to be able to quickly react. I also would have zero tolerance for the Pilot and Commander. Still, that's a very long period to suffer the effects of being drunk. Top that off with the pain of dealing with a hangover in microgravity. Sorry, but the biggest crime of a drunken astronaut is being an idiot.

I guess to be clear on my part, I can see any astronaut taking a belt prior to flying. It would be the last drink for weeks or months if there visiting ISS. Why not enjoy a nice Martini or drink of their choice? This would occur hours prior to actual flight, so 1, maybe 2 drinks should pass through the system long before the astronauts reach the pad.

That said, I hear the incidents are not prior to spaceflight, but prior to T-38 flights. There's laws against flying drunk, and if investigation finds facts about such incidents, they should be prosecuted accordingly.