NASA supervisors approved launches despite advice from agency physicians, called flight surgeons, that shuttle astronauts were unfit to fly, according to the report commissioned by NASA director Michael Griffin.

Two of the occasions involved warnings from flight surgeons and fellow astronauts that a crew member was drunk, the report said, and they were among cases in which "major crew medical or behavior problems were identified to (NASA leaders) and the medical advice was disregarded."

Speaking by telephone during a NASA press conference in Washington, Air Force Col. Richard Bachmann Jr., who chaired the report committee, said flight surgeons found

NASA's treatment of their advice " 'demoralizing' to the point where (they) said they would be less likely to report concerns in the future."

The report appeared to contrast with NASA's assurances after the Challenger explosion in 1986 and the breakup of Columbia in 2003, both of which killed astronaut crews, that the agency had accomplished an internal "culture change." In the new environment, officials said, workers were encouraged to speak out without fear of reprisal about safety concerns even when they conflicted with majority opinions.

NASA officials denied Friday that it had dismissed physicians' opinions that astronauts were unfit for launch.

Deputy Administrator Shana Dale said the agency takes safety issues very seriously and had dispatched Bryan O'Connor, chief of safety and mission assurance, to Johnson to interview astronauts about the allegations of alcohol use — and make sure the team is prepared for its next space shuttle launch, scheduled for Aug. 7.

Griffin asked for the report, by a committee of civilian and military experts in behavioral health, in the wake of astronaut Lisa Nowak's arrest in Florida in February. Nowak was charged with attempted kidnapping in a bizarre confrontation with a rival in an astronaut love triangle.

The NASA plan also calls for a more thorough collection of mental health data in the long-term tracking of astronaut health as well as a pledge to grant protection from workplace retaliation for co-workers and health care providers who report abuses. NASA, which has been tenacious in protecting the medical privacy of the astronauts, also plans to expose its reforms to scrutiny by outside experts.

Bachmann said his committee collected very little detail on incidents of alcohol use by astronauts because it was using the examples only to illustrate a more pressing problem: That flight surgeons and other crew members feel their concerns about astronaut and mission safety were ignored by superiors.

In one incident, an astronaut who was to fly aboard the space shuttle showed up drunk, the colonel said. When the launch was delayed for mechanical or weather reasons, the same astronaut, still inebriated, tried to pilot a T-38 to return home to Houston. A fellow astronaut alerted superiors, he said.

Ellen Ochoa, director of flight crew operations at JSC and an astronaut herself, said alcohol is permitted in crew quarters while astronauts are in quarantine at Kennedy Space Center prior to launch. But she said that in her 17 years in the astronaut corps, she has never observed or heard of astronauts drinking while on duty or during the 12 hours before launch.

"Never — absolutely never," she said.

In Russia, cosmonauts by tradition have a champagne toast 7 1/2 hours before launch. She said she is unsure whether U.S. astronauts flying with the Russian crew have also sipped the champagne during the ceremony.

Ochoa added that flight surgeons can recommend grounding astronauts, even at the last minute, if they feel they are impaired.

The proposed reforms received mixed reviews from current and recently retired astronauts who are concerned NASA could be forced to make unwarranted reforms based on sketchy reports of alcohol abuse and in reaction to the Nowak case.

The committee that produced the report interviewed 14 of the 93 astronauts currently certified to fly, though NASA now plans to survey the entire astronaut corps.

"We are diverse human beings so it's not like everybody looks at everything the same," said Mark Polansky, who commanded Discovery's mission to the space station in December.

While receptive to more psychological scrutiny, he questioned the value of a formal code of conduct.

"I hope at the end of the day we codify what we are already doing," he said. "We represent this agency and country. We have a high standard everyone expects us to adhere to. We should be our own worst critics."

Ken Bowersox, who retired from NASA last year as the director of flight crew operations after four shuttle missions and nearly six months in command of the space station, worried that more regulations mean new headaches for managers.

In nearly 20 years with the space agency, Bowersox said he didn't witness widespread abuse of alcohol before missions.

"The flights are sacrosanct for the folks flying them. There is an old saying that it's better dead than to look bad and they worried about looking bad," he said. "Most of the people I've flown with were so concerned about how they would perform on a flight they would never do something like that."

U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon, the Tennessee Democrat who chairs the House Science and Technology Committee, said his committee will conduct a hearing on the NASA report the first week of September.

Calling the report alarming, Gordon said, "Something clearly seems to be broken in NASA's system of astronaut oversight."

But wholesale changes are unwarranted, said Robert "Hoot" Gibson, who left NASA in 1996 after five shuttle missions and 17 years, two as chief astronaut.

"I'm hoping we don't spring into action to fix something that is not broken. In my opinion, the pschological health of the astronaut has been very good if you look at a cross section of mainstream America," he said. "If you put too much power in the hands of the shrinks, you conceivably could take control of an astronaut's career totally out of his hands. You don't want that to happen."

"Clearly there are serious concerns, and I want to make sure that these problems are addressed in a timely and effective manner," said Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Stafford, whose district includes JSC and who serves on the Science committee. "I expect NASA to explain exactly what steps are being taken to fix these serious problems" during the hearing, he said.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, whose district stretches to western Harris County and who also serves on the committee, said he was shocked by the allegations of alcohol use so close to launch.