July 28, 2007 - Drunk astronauts were cleared for both a space shuttle mission and a flight aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket, a doctor who conducted an independent review of Nasa crew behaviour said yesterday.

Col Richard Bachmann, commander of the US Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, said interviews by a panel of external experts found that despite drinking heavily, one astronaut flew on a Russian spacecraft and another was cleared to fly on a space shuttle.

In the case of the shuttle, the mission was delayed for mechanical reasons and the astronaut wanted to fly a jet from Florida back home to Houston, said Col Bachmann, head of the panel, created to assess astronaut health. He said he didn't know the outcome.

"In none of these can we say factually they did or did not occur," he said, adding that it was not the panel's mission to investigate allegations and that Nasa would have to find out details itself.

The revelations came during a press conference to discuss the findings of an independent review of astronaut healthcare created by Nasa after the arrest of astronaut Lisa Nowak in February on charges she tried to kidnap her rival in a love triangle.

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