This week was a bad one for manned space flight. An accident at Burt Rutan’s Spaceship Company killed 2 workers during an engine test, and injured 4 others. A Nasa contractor found evidence of sabotage in a flight computer destined to be brought up to the International Space Station in August.

Both of these events are tragic. Our hearts and condolences go out to the family members of the Spaceship Company who were hurt or injured. Now that the sabotage has been found, it should be relatively straightforward to catch the culprit at the NASA contractor, and ensure that no other components are effected.

Both of these events prove yet again how difficult space flight is, both technically and from the home front. There’s a reason “Rocket Scientist” is a compliment.

However, what makes this week such a sad day for manned space travel is a recent report that NASA has been allowing astronauts to show up drunk at the space shuttle launch, and then continue as if nothing was wrong. While NASA doctors and astronaut co-workers were raising flags about inebriation during the pre-flight checkup, NASA administrators were turning a blind eye.

Let’s not even go into the responsibilities that US astronauts should have to their fellow crew, or their country. Let’s not even go into the lack of respect they show the taxpayers when we pay nearly $2 billion for each and every Space Shuttle launch. Or the fact that these people are supposed to be the heroes and role models of the modern age.

No, let’s just mention the hundreds of thousands of people who would like a chance to ride into space, but have no choice but to watch this select core of “professionals” flaunt their status by not even having the decency to do their jobs sober.

I wonder what Burt Rutan could do with $2 billion? SpaceShipOne only cost $20 million, and that includes designing it.