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Space shuttle astronaut arrested at OIA on attempted kidnapping, battery charges
Henry Pierson Curtis | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted February 5, 2007, 9:50 PM EST
A NASA astronaut is being held without bail after police say she attacked her rival for another astronaut's attention at Orlando International Airport Monday.
Lisa Marie Nowak drove more than 12 hours from Texas to meet the 1 a.m. flight of a younger woman who had also been seeing the 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, and latex gloves in her car, reports show. They also found diapers, which Nowak said she used so she wouldn't have to stop on the 1,000-mile drive. Reports show that after U.S. Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman's flight arrived, Nowak followed her to the airport's Blue Lot for long-term parking, tried to get into Shipman's car and then doused her with pepper spray.
Nowak, 43, is charged with attempted kidnapping, battery, attempted vehicle burglary with battery and destruction of evidence. Police considered her such a danger that they requested she be held without bail in the Orange County Jail, reports show.
A married mother of three, Nowak told police that she was "involved in a relationship with," Bill Oefelein, another NASA astronaut, which she categorized as "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship," according to the charging affidavit.
Oefelein, who piloted the most recent shuttle Discovery flight in December, could not be reached Monday night at home in Houston.
She found out Oefelein was involved with Shipman and planned a trip to Orlando to talk to Shipman about their relationships with Oefelein, reports show. She also told police the BB gun "was going to be used to entice Ms. Shipman to talk with her."
Shipman, an engineer assigned to the 45th Launch Support Squadron at Patrick Air Force base near the Kennedy Space Center, told police she was flying home from Houston. She could not be reached for comment Monday night at her home near Port Canaveral.
Shipman told police that after waiting two hours to get her luggage, she noticed a woman in a trench coat waiting near the airport taxi stand. When Shipman boarded a shuttle bus to long-term parking, the woman followed, according to police.
When Shipman got into her car in the Blue lot on Cargo Road, reports show, she heard "running footsteps" coming toward her. Nowak tried to open the car door, then claimed she needed a ride, or use of a cell phone.
"No. If you need help, I'll send someone to help you," Shipman responded, reports show.
Nowak claimed she could not hear and started to cry.
"Ms. Shipman rolled her window down about 2 inches, so Mrs. Nowak could hear her... Mrs. Nowak sprayed some type of chemical spray into the vehicle, at Ms. Shipman's face," a detective wrote.
Shipman sped away to the parking lot's toll booth, where she asked a parking employee to call police.
The first officer to reach the Blue lot, saw the suspect drop something black into a trash can at one of the parking shuttle stops. Within minutes, Shipman identified Nowak as her attacker.
A steel mallet, several feet of rubber tubing and hand-written directions to Shipman's home were recovered from Nowak's car, which was parked at a nearby LaQuinta Inn, reports show.
Picked up shortly before 4 a.m., Nowak was questioned until about 5 p.m. when police took her to the county jail.
Her arrest may be the first-ever felony charges filed on an active-duty astronaut, according to the space agency.
"Her status as an astronaut with NASA is currently unchanged. I cannot speculate on what might happen beyond that," said James Hartsfield, a NASA spokesman at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where Nowak and Oefelein work.
Nowak's biography shows she is a 1985 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis with a degree in aerospace engineering, and a former test pilot who has logged more than 1,500 hours of flight in at least 30 types of aircraft.
She joined the space program in 1996. Three members of her astronaut class died in the 2003 shuttle Columbia disaster.
A Navy captain - the equivalent of a colonel - Nowak flew aboard last summer's 12-day flight to re-supply the International Space Station and test safety features and repair techniques. She has the distinction of being the first Italian-American woman in space.
"A lot of my training is what you might think of as a Flight Engineer on ascent and entry," she said in a pre-flight interview on the NASA Web site. "I sit behind and between the pilot and commander and help coordinate things and keep the big picture."
A Navy commander, Oefelein is a former test pilot who attended TOPGUN, the U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons School. He has flown more 3,000 hours in more than 50 types of aircraft, including over 200 carrier landings, according to NASA.
A father of two children, Oefelein enjoys fishing, hiking and snowboarding, according to his NASA biography. In December, Oefelein, 41, logged about 308 hours in space.
"First, the launch was 10 times more exciting than I thought!!" Oefelein wrote Dec. 16 in his blog from space to schoolchildren in Alaska. "Space is fun! I quickly adapted to the zero gravity and have had no problems eating or sleeping. It's fun to eat 'upside down' and sleep on the ceiling."
Sentinel staff writers Beth Kassab and Michael Cabbage contributed to this report
Damn. I didn't know astronauts were so gangsta.
Space Shuttle Astronaut Arrested for Attempted Kidnapping, Battery 
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