Veteran cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko has closed the book on allegations he took a sip of alcohol while serving aboard the International Space Station, according to Russian news reports.

Russia’s Interfax News Agency reports that Malenchenko, who returned to Earth Saturday in an off-target Soyuz landing with NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and South Korean spaceflyer So-yeon Yi, scoffed at earlier media claims that he consumed alcohol during his six months in orbit.

“That’s nonsense,” Interfax quoted Malenchenko as saying in a Monday press conference. “We have never had alcohol onboard the ISS.”

Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko works with communication equipment on the ISS.

Apparently, Russian media outlets reported that Malechenko took a drink during his 46th birthday on Dec. 22. But those reports, Malenchenko said, were completely unfounded.

“We gave an interview shortly before the New Year and almost every Russian journalist asked what we would drink,” he said according to Interfax. “But we had nothing. We might have wished a drink but we did not have any.”

“So, that was a conjecture. People make many conjectures and that was one of them,” he said.

Malenchenko was Soyuz commander during the launch and landing for the station’s Expedition 16 crew and served as a flight engineer during the mission itself. He also commanded the space station during the Expedition 7 mission in 2003 and flew an earlier mission to Russia’s Space Station Mir.

Alcohol is not allowed aboard NASA shuttles, Soyuz and the International Space Station, though astronauts - like the rest of us - are free to consume it when they’re not on duty.

NASA battled allegations of inappropriate drinking among the astronaut corps in the final hours before flight last year after two anecdotal reports popped up during an audit of the agency’s health services. After months of investigation, however, the agency found no substance to the reports and officially adopted what had been until then an unofficial no-drinking policy for spaceflyers within 12 hours of liftoff.