Does NASA allow drunken astronauts to fly into space? According to a health report published in Aviation Week and Space Technology, the answer could be a "Yes".

The publication reported that there were at least two occasions where inebriated astronauts were permitted to launch, posing a flight-safety risk to themselves and other astronauts. Astronauts normally adhere to the standard 12-hour "bottle-to-throttle", but there were two instances of heavy drinking that made the astronauts a less sober than required.

But the health report published in the Aviation Week and Space Technology was reportedly based on unsubstantiated anonymous interviews, according to a NASA official. According to him, NASA will have a news conference to discuss a special panel's findings about astronaut health, including "heavy use of alcohol" before launch. The panel includes a NASA consultant and Air Force experts and aerospace medicine and clinical psychiatry.

The panel was created after astronaut Lisa Nowak got arrested for assaulting a fellow astronaut's girlfriend. Nowak was fired by NASA last March.

Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's operations chief was asked if there was a safety issue involving a drunken astronaut in the past. "The obvious answer is no. I've never had any instances of that," he replied. "There's not been a disciplinary action or anything I've been involved with regarding this type of activity."

NASA will host its traditional post-Flight Readiness Review news conference on Saturday, June 17, (no later than 2pm EDT) to announce key decisions about Discovery's mission, STS-121. The conference, to be aired live on NASA TV, will include the selection of an official launch date. The NASA officials who will attend the briefing from the Kennedy Space Center include:

• Michael Griffin, NASA Administrator
• Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations
• Wayne Hale, Space Shuttle Program manager
• Mike Leinbach, NASA launch director

The news conference follows a two-day detailed assessment of the readiness of Space Shuttle Discovery for launch to be conducted on June 16 and 17. The specific start time of the news conference is dependent on the meeting's conclusion.