Originally Posted by
kronan
She was a mission specialist. So, she had one area of expertise that she excelled in and like many experts, was book smart and street stupid.
Mission specialists often do many things. Pilot astronuats are the ones who excel at one particular thing.
I suppose nasa's screening process fell short in that they assumed that anyone who was good enough overall to compete for an astronuat slot would be completely level-headed. She actually flew in space, so in addition to the interview process, she completed new-hire training (one year), and at least a one-year mission workup...pretty intense stuff actually. It's surprisng that nobody noticed anything during all that.