Story highlights Mortuary employee at Dover Air Force Base offered to show Sen. John Glenn's remains to Defense Department inspectors

Glenn died in December 2016

(CNN) The Air Force has launched an investigation into allegations a mortuary employee at Dover Air Force Base offered to show Sen. John Glenn's remains to Defense Department inspectors as his body was awaiting burial.

There is no indication the inspectors viewed the body, an Air Force official told CNN. But a key question is whether others were also told they could view Glenn's remains, one military official said.

The Glenn family has been notified about the incident, which was first reported in the publication Military Times.

A long-serving Democratic senator from Ohio and US Marine, Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth in 1962.

He passed away December 8, 2016. The military mortuary at Dover Air Force Base was caring for his body until his burial at Arlington National Cemetery on April 6, on what would have been his 74th wedding anniversary.

Read More