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Psychosis in space? NASA has checklist

Lisa Nowak's arrest leads the agency to check its screening. But it has a plan for breakdowns.

CAPE CANAVERAL - What would happen if an astronaut came unglued in space and, say, destroyed the ship's oxygen system or tried to open the hatch and kill everyone aboard?

That was the question on some minds after the apparent breakdown of Lisa Nowak, arrested in Orlando this month on charges that she tried to kidnap and kill a woman she regarded as her rival for another astronaut's affections.

NASA has a detailed set of written procedures for dealing with a suicidal or psychotic astronaut in space. The documents say the astronaut's crewmates should bind his wrists and ankles with duct tape, tie him down with a bungee cord and inject him with tranquilizers if necessary.

"Talk with the patient while you are restraining him," the instructions say. "Explain what you are doing, and that you are using a restraint to ensure that he is safe."

The instructions do not spell out what happens after that. But NASA spokesman James Hartsfield said the space agency, a flight surgeon on the ground and the commander in space would decide on a case-by-case basis whether to abort the flight, in the case of the shuttle, or send the unhinged astronaut home, if the episode took place on the international space station.

Crew members might have to rely in large part on brute strength to subdue an out-of-control astronaut, as there are no weapons on the space station or the shuttle. A gun would be out of the question; a bullet could pierce a spaceship and kill everyone.

NASA and its Russian counterpart drew up the checklist for the space station in 2001. Hartsfield said NASA has a nearly identical set of procedures for the shuttle.

The space-station checklist is part of a 1,051-page document that contains instructions for dealing with every possible medical situation in space, including removing a tooth. Handling behavioral emergencies takes up five pages.

Although Nowak performed her duties with aplomb during a short visit to the space station via the shuttle last July, and was not scheduled to fly again, her arrest led NASA to review its psychological screening process.

Space station medical kits contain tranquilizers and antidepression, antianxiety and anti-psychotic medications. Shuttle medical kits have antipsychotic medication but not antidepressants, since they take several weeks to be effective and shuttle flights last less than two weeks.

Space station astronauts talk weekly via long-distance hook-up to a flight surgeon and every two weeks to a psychologist, so any psychiatric disorder would probably be detected before it became so serious that the astronaut had to be brought home, Hartsfield said.

[Last modified February 25, 2007, 01:17:49]