Posted on 02/05/2007 5:27:04 PM PST by burzum
A NASA astronaut is charged with attacking her rival for another astronaut's attention early Monday at Orlando International Airport, the Orlando Sentinel has learned.
Lisa Marie Nowak drove from Texas to meet the 1 a.m. flight of a younger woman who had also been seeing the male astronaut Nowak pined for, according to Orlando police.
Nowak -- who was a mission specialist on a Discovery launch last summer -- was wearing a trench coat and wig and had a knife, BB pistol, rubber tubing and plastic bags, reports show. Once U.S. Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman arrived, Nowak followed her to the airport's Blue Lot for long-term parking, tried to get into Shipman's car and doused her with pepper spray, according to reports.
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
As the report makes clear on pg 18 (Hodar has clearly neglected to read that far), the navigation team did realize that there was a modeling error. However, the tracking observability of the effects was poor, as the forces in question were applied perpendicular to the line of sight, and thus not discernable as a Doppler shift.
I've heard that Delta DOR can be used to get spacecraft direction, but requires more antenna resources than ranging or doppler.
I don't know about that. It does help to get rid of systematic and modeling errors in the range measurements, but even over a fairly long arc, I think the thrust effects would only be observable as an angular offset: the range wouldn't be noticeably different until you'd had a lot of thrust events, spread out over enough time for it to show up in the ranging measurement.
Which is to say, I think it would take longer data spans than these guys were probably using. Also, it sounds like the NAV guy wasn't knowledgable enough about the SV to understand what was even going on to cause the effects.
As the report says, though, as early as April the data did show that there was a systematic modeling error, but the NAV guy didn't adequately express it to the rest of the ops team. (The vehicle was lost on 23 September.) By that point, they had corrected the small forces software, knew there was an error, the flight team had plenty of time to respond ... and didn't.
Truly out of this world. I thought it was the Time Warner Cable astronaut. Now, that astronaut is annoying.
Sorry, just now getting to my pings. Let's see - the part I wrote about Jon Clark was in reference to what he said about the after-mission blues, so to speak, that he saw his wife go through as an astronaut.
Of course, Laurel Clark is no longer with us, having gone down with the Columbia in 2/2003. It was her first space flight, but like Nowak and the others, she was part of a tight-knit community and observed - especially as a medical doctor - the effects among her teammates in the astronaut corps.
So, the comments her husband made were firsthand, although obviously not from Laurel having been in space, if that's where I confused you.
Nowak had been the support person assigned after the tragedy to Clark's family to help with their adjustment process after Laurel died. They had been friends and neighbors, also from the same astronaut Class of '96.
My point was that I put a lot of stock in what Clark would have to say about all this.
I'm still not clear on the Oefelein part of it. I thought *aha!* when we saw the tidbit where his former MIL said Nowak broke her daughter's heart (meaning in the divorce from Oefelein).
Bill O and his wife Michaella had separated in February 2005 and their divorce was final in May 2005.
But then, I saw another small snippet from a story posted here on FR that said the mother-in-law told reporters Nowak had nothing to do with the break-up of the Oefeleins' marriage.
I have no way to judge which statement is truthful.
Then there is the question of Shipman's relationship with Oefelein. In one news story, it said that Shipman's own handwritten request for the temporary restraining order on Nowak called Oefelein her "boyfriend." (In a previous post, I had questioned who was calling him her BF, her or the cops - then I later found that it was in Shipman's own handwritten statement.)
Then, in another FR post, someone said their local news was reporting that Shipman had taken Oefelein home to meet her parents in rural Pennsylvania. But tonight on our local news (Houston), they interviewed a neighbor of Shipman's in FL who said he believed she had another boyfriend who was regular around her condo.
I am curious about the timing of the dish-throwing incident at the Nowaks' - Nov 2006. Was it a normal crazy Thanksgiving, lol, or something else?
Oefelein went into quarantine on Fri., Dec 1, before the targeted launch date of Dec 7. They do that here in Houston, then go to the Cape closer to launch. Oefelein and crew flew to Canaveral on Dec 4.
The shuttle Discovery was already in place near the launch pad as of Nov 9., but liftoff was eventually executed on Dec 9, instead of 7th, due to the clouds. Sunita Williams, the astronette who chalked up the new women's spacewalk record the other day, from the space station, was taken up there on this flight. She is also a "robo-chick" as mission specialist and was in Oefelein's Class of '98.
Just some of my musings, trying to figure some of the true timeline from what we know now.
FR Link RoundUp
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Space shuttle astronaut arrested at OIA on attempted kidnapping, battery charges
Orlando Sentinel ^ | February 5, 2007
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1779787/posts
Astronaut arrested for attempted kidnapping and battery
Orlando Sentinel ^ Posted on 02/05/2007 9:09:23 PM CST - Locked
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1779842/posts
Astronaut Arrested Over Love Spat
FOX-35 WOFL Orlando ^ | February 5, 2007
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1779843/posts - Locked
Astronaut charged with kidnap attempt
Sierra Times ^ | February 5,2007
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1779888/posts - Locked
Astronaut in 'love kidnap plot' [With photos]
BBC ^ | 06FEB07
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1779945/posts
Police: Astronaut Attacked Rival Of Pilot's Affections
WNBC Television ^ | 02/06/2007
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1779964/posts
Space shuttle astronaut arrested at OIA on attempted kidnapping, battery charges
The Orlando Sentinel ^ | 2/6/07
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1780033/posts
Astronaut Held On Allegation Of Kidnap Attempt
Express-News ^ | 02/06/07
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1780063/posts
NASA astronaut accused of attempt to kidnap rival in love triangle with fellow astronaut(Arrested)
San Diego Union Tribune ^ | February 6, 2007
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1780131/posts
Astronaut to face attempted murder count
AP ^ | 02/06/2007
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1780172/posts
Astronaut accused of attempted murder
Yahoo News ^ 02/06/2007
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1780173/posts
For Jay or Dave, no charge - my jokes on the astronaut thing
freedomdefender ^ | February 6, 2007
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1780262/posts
Astronaut's Arrest Spotlights Differences in NASA, Navy Policies
SPACE.com ^ | Feb 6, 2007
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1780488/posts
Love Scorned! Pepper Spray! A BB Gun! Houston, We Have a Problem. (Navy Captain in diapers)
NY Times ^ | February 6, 2007
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1780506/posts
'Lust in Space' Astronaut Lisa Nowak Returns to Texas After Being Released on Bail
Fox News ^ | February 07, 2007
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1780696/posts
How did bright star at NASA end up in this mess?
The Seattle Times ^ | 2/7/07
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1780810/posts
Did Huge Career Pressures Aid In Astronaut's Undoing?
New Scientist ^ | 2-7-2007
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1780819/posts
When love goes wrong -- a bizarre mission
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 2/7/7
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1780854/posts
Inner Galactic Misconduct: The Astronaut is a Whack Job
Peace and Freedom ^ | February 7, 2007
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1780904/posts
Astronaut suffered 'mental anguish'
Associated Press (excerpt) ^ | February 7, 2007
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1781045/posts
Signs of strain preceded astronaut's arrest on murder charge
Daily Times (Pakistan) ^ | Thursday, February 08, 2007
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1781050/posts
NASA to Review Astronaut Psychological Screening
Space.com ^ | 7 February 2007
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1781054/posts
Love triangle drama a test for space program
Sydney Morning Herald ^ | February 8 2007
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1781159/posts
'Ground control to jealous mom ...'
National Post ^ | February 8, 2007
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1781203/posts
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It is possible. I had not thought about that. But as any rate, she looked like she had been rode hard and put up wet.
American Idol is having a songwriting contest. How many entries will be entitled, "I'd drive 900 miles in a diaper for you (baby)"?
I don't know if this has been discussed here, but in Shipman's restraining order against Nowak, she says Nowak has been stalking her for two months.
I want to know how she is aware of that if they had never met face to face until the assault?
And if she was aware, why didn't she notify somebody in her chain of command? We're talking about military personnel here.
I am more and more convinced that a LOT of people at NASA were aware of this developing NOWAK-OEFELEIN-SHIPMAN situation long before it became a national incident, and NASA is DEFINITELY remiss for not calling some officers into some meetings and clearing this up before it got out of hand.
This is not just any workplace, this is NASA, and they need to be more careful about these things. I think it's time to have a strict policy about workplace romances at NASA and other sensitive agencies, for that matter.
I also think Oefelein deserves to be disciplined for his participation in this mess. He should've kept it in his pants.
"And if she was aware, why didn't she notify somebody in her chain of command? We're talking about military personnel here."
I imagine everybody in the mess had, at some point, violated some military code.
She may have seen her on numerous occasions at odd times and in unexpected places and never thought twice about it until she was attacked.
Oefelein's former mother-in-law says that Nowak was a factor in his divorce, which would almost certainly make him a factor in Nowak's impending divorce.
I think odd things had been happening to Shipman, but she didn't know who was causing them, so didn't know about Nowak. We don't even know if Oefelein knew about Nowak's obsession.
Buzz Aldrin talked yesterday about the competitiveness - such that his own group of 24 of the oldies have never had a reunion amongst themselves. The guys compete with each other and the gals do likewise, so I don't think there is much communication about the stuff that can be used against somebody, until it's really bad enough to be used.
Well, but another source said the MIL denied that completely.
Not true. You are getting mixed up. Thruster performance is often measured in pounds-seconds or Newton-seconds. Since these are dissimilar units of measure, using the wrong one for calculating trajectory (Delta-V) correction/course changes, can (and did) induce error and subsequent loss of mission.
Interesting paper:
Sorry. Meant to ping you to the above as well.
The source I read said that the MIL at first claimed Nowak was the main reason and then, on further reflection, said that she was blowing it up somewhat and that Nowak was a factor but not the only factor.
Interesting idea, and a good insight about the difference between processing numbers, and "quantities" with inherent units.
Although, given my current bad experiences with projects to replace existing ground systems, I recoil in horror at the thought of actually trying to use this language to recode everything all over again.... ;-)
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