Space shuttle astronaut arrested at OIA on attempted kidnapping, battery charges

Orlando Sentinel ^ | February 5, 2007 | Henry Pierson Curtis

[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.

[Rte66]

We started out talking about why Nowak didn't do the deed in Houston, while Shipman was there - and how to dispose of the body somewhere around JSC.

I don't know much about gators around Orlando or the Cape - but you have the Atlantic and some rivers there - and that long lonely stretch of highway out to the Cape. Are there crocs around there?

[Al Simmons]

Apparently not. A quick Google search discloses that while the population is showing slow signs of a comeback, its basically limited to the very Southern tip of Florida, and is a long way from being safe. Here is a good link:

http://www.npca.org/marine_and_coastal/marine_wildlife/crocodile.html

Incidentally, while visiting the Alligator Zoo in Orlando 19 years ago, I saw a a few crocs mixed in with the gators. The most fascinating thing was that there was one croc which would continually swim through a sea of gators and leap up to get the chicken-on-a-rope in the main pond.

It was almost as if it was smarter than the gators, or maybe could jump out of the water further.

Its a shame that many are accidentally destroyed because *diots think that they're killing a nuisance "gator".

If you can tell the difference between a Golden retriever and a German Shepherd, you ought to be able to figure out if you're looking at a croc or a gator.

1. Gators are darkish-greenish in color;
Crocs are lighter-colored and brownish;

2. Gators have wide rounded snouts;
Crocs have longer, more narrow snouts;

3. When a gator closes its mouth all you can see are its upper jaw teeth (overbite);
When a croc closes its mouth, you can see a number of large lower-jaw teeth sticking up, as well as upper jaw teeth hanging down.

The American croc is not as big as some other species and is not as aggressive as the African and Australian varieties...

[Rte66]

I wouldn't know an American croc from any other croc, but I'd sure know the difference between a croc and a gator.

Croc's "smile". The edges of their mouths turn up and remind me of a cupid's bow mouth, like some girls have. Gators are just linear.

[Abigail Adams]

How long before there's a hearing of some sort, and more news about the case?

That's interesting about crocs. They say, "Never smile at a crocodile..." I didn't know that they smiled!

[Abigail Adams]

Here's a link to a story on CNN about the upcoming shuttle mission not being affected by the Nowak thing:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/02/16/shuttle.ap/index.html

It says Shipman will not pursue the restraining order after all.

[george76]

Lisa Nowak won't face attempted murder charge

(3/02/07) - Florida prosecutors charged an astronaut Friday with trying to kidnap a woman she saw as a rival for a space shuttle pilot's affections, but they declined to file an attempted murder charge that had been recommended by police.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=local&id=5085361

[First_Salute]

2012 - just after, conveniently after, the very unfortunate re-election of Obama, the Washington Post reports:

FBI probe of Petraeus triggered by e-mail threats from biographer, officials say