Posted on 02/06/2007 7:18:24 AM PST by Froufrou
Lisa Marie Nowak was accustomed to hard training, prolonged deprivation and a strong sense of mission. But this is not exactly what NASA had in mind when it made her an astronaut.
Equipped with a knife, pellet pistol, can of pepper spray, steel mallet and 4 feet of rubber tubing, Nowak arrived at Orlando International Airport early Monday morning, police said, to confront a romantic rival for fellow astronaut Bill Oefelein.
Nowak, 43, remains in Orange County Jail without bail on a variety of charges arising from a confrontation with Colleen Shipman, an Air Force captain whom she is accused of assaulting in a parking garage during what police characterized as an attempted kidnapping. Her arrest may be the first-ever felony charges filed on an active-duty astronaut, the space agency told the Orlando Sentinel.
She is scheduled to make an initial appearance this morning at the Orange County Jail Booking and Releasing Center, which is inside the main jail facility.
Nowak, married and the mother of three, apparently had driven from Houston to meet Shipman, a younger competitor for the affections of another astronaut, Bill Oefelein. So intent was she not to be late that Nowak had donned adult diapers to avoid the customary rest stops, police said she told them.
Nowak told police she and Oefelein have “more than a working relationship, but less than a romantic relationship,” according to an affidavit. After learning that Shipman was involved with Oefelein, she said she wanted to meet the other woman to talk to her. She said she did not plan to hurt her.
Asked how squirting Shipman with pepper spray was going to aid the conversation, Nowak replied, “That was stupid.”
Police said Nowak also told them that she wanted to scare Shipman, an engineer attached to Patrick AFB near the Kennedy Space Center. Shipman is a 2002 graduate of Penn State University and has worked at Cape Canaveral since 2005.
Nowak, a mission specialist and Navy captain, has served on one space shuttle mission, the STS-121 return-to-flight test mission aboard Discovery last summer. She joined the astronaut corps in 1996 after a dozen years as a naval flight officer.
Oefelein is a U.S. Navy commander. He served as the pilot aboard the shuttle Discovery during a 12-day mission to the international space station in December. The 41-year-old naval aviator was selected by NASA for astronaut training in 1998. The December mission was his first spaceflight.
Oefelein is the father of two children, according to his official NASA biography, which does not mention his marital status. He is a Fort Belvoir, Va., native who grew up in Alaska.
Nowak and Oefelein trained together during an 11-day stint in 2004 at a Canadian army cold-weather facility in Quebec.
Describing Monday's incident, Shipman told police a dark-haired woman wearing a trench coat boarded the same parking shuttle bus that she did at about 3 a.m. When Shipman got off, the other woman did, too. Shipman walked to her car and heard footsteps following her.
Shipman hurriedly got into her car and locked the door. The other woman pounded on her window and tried to open the door. She then asked Shipman for help.
“My boyfriend was supposed to pick me up and he is not here,” Shipman said she was told. “I've been traveling, and it's late. Can you give me a ride to the parking office?”
Shipman said she declined. The woman then asked to borrow her cell phone. Shipman told her the battery was dead. When the woman said she couldn't hear what Shipman was saying, Shipman lowered the window a few inches. At that point, Shipman was pepper-sprayed, she said.
Eyes burning, Shipman managed to drive away and alert nearby police, who arrested Nowak a few minutes later at a parking shuttle bus stop.
Among the items police said they found during a search of Nowak's vehicle at a La Quinta hotel near the airport were six latex gloves, plastic garbage sacks, a letter indicating how much Nowak loved Oefelein, handwritten directions to Shipman's house, an unused CO2 cartridge and $600 cash. Police also reported finding a black wig and a BB gun in an airport trash can.
NASA said Nowak's status, for the moment, is unchanged.
“I cannot speculate beyond the present,” said James Hartsfield, NASA spokesman at Houston's Johnson Space Center, where the astronauts train.
put this poor woman in a rubber room at the laugh academy where she will be safe.......
I can see the STAR headline now....
Nice job on NH thread 20 yesterday, VN.
How can this woman have so many hormones after 40 ping?
I feel very confident in saying she won't see the inside of a Space Shuttle again.
Well, let's hope this space cadet is permanently grounded.
Gives new meaning to "space cadet," doesn't it?
Looks like NASA's screening standards arent what they used to be. Who cares? As long as the astronauts feel good about themselves who cares what may happen if one goes looney while on a mission. This should prompt NASA to put every Astronaut through a thorough evaluation to see if there are any more whackos in the program.
Several threads from yesterday and earlier. See link for previous threads. Three are locked, but very interesting FReeper replies.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1779945/posts?page=13#13
First thread here.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1779787/posts
Married, with children!
You'd think she'd be kind of tired . . .
Peg Bundy Gone Wild!
-------------------------------------------------------------
Lisa M. Nowak (CAPTAIN, USN) NASA Astronaut
PERSONAL DATA: Born May 10, 1963, in Washington, D.C. Married, with three children. Lisa enjoys bicycling, running, skeet, sailing, gourmet cooking, rubber stamps, crossword puzzles, piano, and African violets. As an undergraduate she competed on the track team. Her parents, Alfredo and Jane Caputo, reside in Rockville, Maryland.
EDUCATION: Graduated from C.W. Woodward High School, Rockville, Maryland, in 1981; received a bachelor of science degree in aerospace engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1985; a master of science degree in aeronautical engineering and a degree of aeronautical and astronautical engineer from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, both in 1992.
ORGANIZATIONS: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association; Tau Beta Pi Engineering Society. ...
I realise the desire for romance doesn't end when you have children, but seriously... A woman at this stage of life with 3 kids is really out of her mind, creating a mess like this.
No doubt she got the position because of her gender. No doubt a better candidate got passed over so NASA could increase the number of women in the program.
She might hijack one,
to make her pilot lover
fly her to the moon . . .
A fantastic career....down the tubes.
Should women be allowed on an extended mission to Mars?
I'm sure sharing a sleeping bag just to keep warm. Perhaps there has been hanky panky in weightlessness after all.
I did a search before posting this. I don't see understand her disregard for her children/career in this 'we can have it all' age...
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