An internal investigation conducted at NASA after Lisa Nowak’s fight with her love rival has found that flight personnel at Kennedy Space Center allowed “intoxicated” astronauts to fly at least two times, despite the danger involved.

Aviation Week & Space Technology claims to be in possession of a draft document signed by members of a government panel established after Lisa Nowak’s arrest, on February 5, in which serious accusations of misconduct are formulated.

Apparently, the panel found that at least in two occasions, the ground flight personnel authorized lift offs despite “heavy use of alcohol” at some of the astronauts, whose names have not been revealed.

Space shuttle crew members are forbidden to consume alcohol within 12 h before launch. Despite warnings coming from surgeons and even other astronauts who had not consumed alcohol, the agency authorized the flights.

A spokeswoman at Houston's Johnson Space Center, where the astronaut corps is based, would not comment but the U.S. space agency said it would release the findings of "two reviews regarding astronaut medical and behavioral health assessments" at a press conference Friday in Washington.

The recent findings are the result of an internal investigation conducted at NASA under Administrator Michael Griffin’s supervising, after the Lisa Nowak incident.