Yet another silly thing for handwringing...

Look, astronauts don't really have all that much to do during liftoff, besides just lying around. It is not like they are piloting the thing.

So, I don't give two bits if they have one or four martinis before launch. I don't blame them if they do. They are being strapped to a giant bottle rocket and launched into space by an agency plagued by colossal ineptitude. I would have to have a few before going on a NASA mission. I would probably need about six to agree to go in the first place.

"Yeah, I'll go to space. You guys are great. Just great. Remind me to write to my Congressbeast to tell them what a wonderful bunch of guys you are. NASA is going to end war and poverty."

Right.

So, a twelve hour bottle to throttle rule?

Per che?

Twelve hours of teetotalling to keep some silly Suthrun Congressional type happy? And then to have one of them have the nerve to talk about not having the right stuff?

I don't think any astronaut (besides a senile John Glenn, perhaps, although for all I know the laws were already in place before he was elected), ever had anything to do with drafting any Federal (!) dogfighting legistlation. And John Glenn would have been the sort of wiener who would have gone into space stone sober.