This story was updated at 5:23 p.m. EDT.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) --
At least twice, astronauts were allowed to fly after flight surgeons and other
astronauts warned they were so drunk they posed a flight-safety risk, an
aviation weekly reported Thursday, citing a special panel studying astronaut
health.
The independent panel found
"heavy use of alcohol" before launch, according to Aviation Week
& Space Technology, which reported the finding on its Web site.
The alcohol use by
astronauts was within the standard 12-hour "bottle-to-throttle'' rule
applied to NASA flight crew members, Aviation Week said. The panel was
created following the arrest in February of former space shuttle flier Lisa
Nowak, who was implicated
in a love triangle.
NASA's space operations
chief, Bill Gerstenmaier, said
Thursday it would be inappropriate for him to discuss the matter before the
report is released Friday when a news conference is planned.
Asked if he had ever
personally had to deal with a safety issue involving an inebriated astronaut in
space, Gerstenmaier replied: "The obvious answer is no. I've never had any
instances of that.
"There's not been a
disciplinary action or anything I've been involved with regarding this type of
activity,'' he said.
NASA plans to release the findings of a pair of
reviews -- one by the outside committee and the other by an internal panel --
into astronauts' health Friday.
The independent panel's
NASA consultant and its eight members, which include Air Force experts in
aerospace medicine and clinical psychiatry, did not immediately return phone
messages or e-mails from the Associated Press Thursday afternoon.
Aviation Week said the report citing drunkenness --
ordered by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin -- does not deal directly with
Nowak or mention any other astronaut by name.
Nowak is accused of
attacking the girlfriend of a fellow astronaut -- her romantic rival -- with
pepper spray in a parking lot at Orlando International Airport. Fired by NASA
in March, she has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted kidnapping,
battery and burglary with assault.
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