Astronaut Lisa Nowak charged with attempted kidnapping of romantic rival

[Heroin_Chic]

-This story isn`t celebrity or fashion-related but I just had to post it since it`s an insane story! -

Astronaut charged with attempted kidnapping

NASA astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak is shown in this undated photo released by the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
Photograph by : AP/Orange County Sheriff's Department



ORLANDO, Fla. -- An astronaut drove from Houston to Florida, donned a disguise and confronted a woman she believed was romantically involved with a space shuttle pilot she was in love with, police said. She was charged with attempted kidnapping and other counts.



U.S. Navy Capt. Lisa Nowak, 43, who flew last July on a shuttle mission to the international space station, was also charged with attempted vehicle burglary with battery, destruction of evidence and battery. She was denied bail.
Police said Nowak drove from her home in Houston to the Orlando International Airport -- wearing diapers so she wouldn't have to stop to urinate -- to confront Colleen Shipman.

Nowak believed Shipman was romantically involved with Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein, a pilot during space shuttle Discovery's trip to the space station last December, police said.

Nowak told police that her relationship with Oefelein was "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship," according to an arrest affidavit. Police officers recovered a love letter to Oefelein in her car.
NASA spokesman James Hartsfield in Houston said that, as of Monday, Nowak's status with the astronaut corps remained unchanged.
"What will happen beyond that, I will not speculate," he said.

Hartsfield said he couldn't recall the last time an astronaut was arrested and said there were no rules against fraternizing among astronauts.

When she found out that Shipman was flying to Orlando from Houston, Nowak decided to confront her, according to the arrest affidavit. Nowak drove the 1,500-kilometre trip from Houston to Orlando wearing diapers, police said.
Astronauts wear diapers during launch and re-entry.

Dressed in a wig and a trench coat, Nowak boarded an airport bus that Shipman took to her car in an airport parking lot. Shipman told police she noticed someone following her, hurried inside the car and locked the doors, according to the arrest affidavit.

Nowak rapped on the window, tried to open the car door and asked for a ride. Shipman refused but rolled down the car window a few inches when Nowak started crying. Nowak then sprayed a chemical into Shipman's car, the affidavit said.
Shipman drove to the parking lot booth, and the police were called.
During a check of the parking lot, an officer followed Nowak and watched her throw away a bag containing the wig and BB gun. They also found a steel mallet, a10-centimetre folding knife, rubber tubing, US$600 and garbage bags inside a bag Nowak was carrying when she was arrested, authorities said.

Inside Nowak's vehicle, which was parked at a nearby motel, authorities uncovered a pepper spray package, an unused BB-gun cartridge, latex gloves and e-mails between Shipman and Oefelein. They also found a letter "that indicated how much Mrs. Nowak loved Mr. Oefelein," an opened package for a buck knife, Shipman's home address and hand written directions to the address, the arrest affidavit said.

Police said Nowak told them that she only wanted to scare Shipman into talking to her about her relationship with Oefelein and didn't want to harm her physically.
"If you were just going to talk to someone, I don't know that you would need a wig, a trench coat, an air cartridge BB gun and pepper spray," said Sgt. Barbara Jones, a spokeswoman for the Orlando Police Department. "It's just really a very sad case. ... Now she ends up finding herself on the other side of the law with some very serious charges."

If convicted of attempted kidnapping, Nowak could face a maximum of life in prison.
It was not immediately known whether Nowak had a lawyer.
According to NASA's official biography, Nowak is married with three children. During her 13-day mission in July she operated the robotic arm during three spacewalks.
Oefelein piloted the space shuttle Discovery in December. He has two children, according to a NASA biography.

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=b9527c3d-5f6f-4be8-b7b8-4887e71e468c&k=38650

Look at her last year:

(Picture from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6335947.stm) happy & successful!

Isn`t it sad & insane what love can do to some people!?

 

[Salvatore]

Wow...love is so good and yet so bad. That is absolutely nuts!

 

[oanadobre]

This is what happens when reason fails... So sad...

 

[VainJane]

I saw this on CNN this morning, absolutely crazy and fascinating.

Though I must say that I'm not entirely surprised at this kind of behavior coming from an astronaut....I'm not saying that astronauts are crazy or have homicidal tendencies; what I'm getting at is that they're extremely dedicated to whatever goal they set for themselves. So this Nowak woman probably set this goal that Oefelein would become her lover and she wouldn't let anything or anyone get in her way.

Sad though...she's so successful and has a career that tons of people would love to have. Supposedly she was due to be part of another space mission in March.

 

[liberty33r1b]

an insane story indeed....

 

[marsmars]

She learned about engineering, she went to a Naval Academy. She was an astronaut. It's not like this is some bimbo we're talking about... She's a brilliant individual. I wonder what the whole story about this love triangle is, it must have been intense for it to have panned out this way.

 

[christina126]

Is she the one who collapsed twice after they got home during a press conference?

 

[swizzlekiss0125]

wow. just wow.

 

[Gypsy_Doll]

You have got to be kidding me.

 

[Pinky*]

maybe she forgot she's back on earth now..?

 

[Heroin_Chic]

maybe she forgot she's back on earth now..?

Karma for that

Did you see the movie "The astronaut`s wife" with Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron? Maybe something creepy happened to her in space too?

 

[Heroin_Chic]

Though I must say that I'm not entirely surprised at this kind of behavior coming from an astronaut....I'm not saying that astronauts are crazy or have homicidal tendencies; what I'm getting at is that they're extremely dedicated to whatever goal they set for themselves.

I totally get your point and totally agree! It takes a lot of drive and "insane dedication" to work yourself into Space Program and a person who brings up the extreme drive to manage to overcome gravity might also tend to do extreme things to overcome "obstacles" on earth...

Just too bad her children couldn`t ground her
----
Btw here is her biography from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Nowak) for everybody:

Biography

Nowak first became interested in the space program when she was five years old, watching the Apollo moon landings and later followed the space shuttle program, particularly the introduction of women astronauts, while she was growing up. She graduated from C.W. Woodward High School in Rockville, Maryland in 1981 and received a BS degree in aerospace engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1985. Nowak received an MS degree in aeronautical engineering and a degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering in 1992 from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.[1]
She received her commission from the U.S. Navy in 1985 and became a naval flight officer in 1987. After her postgraduate studies Nowak entered Aerospace Engineering Duty and the U.S. Naval Pilot Test School. She logged over 1,500 hours of flight in over 30 different aircraft during her career in the Navy, eventually obtaining the rank of captain.[1]
Nowak was selected to be an astronaut in 1996 and entered the astronaut corps at Johnson Space Center in August of that year. She qualified as a mission specialist in robotics and went into space July 4, 2006 on the STS-121 mission which included a trip to the International Space Station. Nowak served as mission flight engineer, operated the shuttle's robotic arm during several spacewalks and logged almost 13 days in space.[1] She was the first Italian American woman to go into space and carried a National Organization of Italian American Women gold pin during her flight.

Nowak is married to Richard T. Nowak, a flight controller in Mission Control for the International Space Station,[2] and they have three children, a teenaged son born in 1992 and twin daughters born in 2001.[3] Her hobbies include reading, piano, gardening, and crossword puzzles.[4] She is a Roman Catholic.

 

[~Fashionista~]

maybe she forgot she's back on earth now..?

 

[Pinky*]

heroin_chic:
she wants to impregnate shipman with her alien seed

call the men in black!

 

[misssakura]

This reminds me of an episode of XFiles.

 

[sanura]

I was very fascinated by this bizzare story. Just when I thought I have seen it all. And the adult daiper

I'd love to know the real story behind the love triangle!!

 

[VainJane]

On Larry King they said that Nowak had been separated from her husband for a few weeks. They also mentioned that Ladies Home Journal did a Mother's Day article about Nowak...how ironic.


A few more tid-bits that I found interesting:


In a September interview with Ladies' Home Journal, Nowak said her husband, Richard, "works in Mission Control, so he's part of the whole space business, too. And supportive also."
On Tuesday, a Houston neighbor, Bryan Lam, told The Associated Press that in November he heard the sounds of dishes being thrown inside the house and the police came.
"I've seen them arguing before," he said.
Nowak, in a NASA interview last year, before her mission aboard Discovery, as well as in an interview with ABC News, spoke about the strain her career placed on her family. She has twin 5-year-old girls and a son who is 14 or 15.
"It's a sacrifice for our own personal time and our families and the people around us," she said in the NASA interview. "But I do think it's worth it because if you don't explore and take risks and go do all these things they everything will stay the same."
In an in-flight news conference aboard Discovery last summer, she talked about waiting nearly 10 years for her first space flight. "It's been a long wait, but it's worth the wait," she said.
NASA astronauts often have nicknames, at least among their crewmates and Mission Control. Aboard Discovery last July, Nowak and crewmate Stephanie Wilson were known as "the Robochicks" because they operated the shuttle's robotic arm that checked the spacecraft for damage.
A smiling, put-together woman in her NASA photos, Nowak's police mug shot showed a fatigued, haggard face with scraggly hair.
Oefelein, a 41-year-old Navy commander nicknamed "Billy-O" by his comrades, trained with Nowak but never flew with her. He piloted a Discovery mission in December to the space station where astronauts rewired the outpost, installed a new $11 million section and dropped off a new American crew member.
Oefelein is unmarried but has two children. He began his aviation career as a teenager, flying floatplanes in Alaska. The Orlando Sentinel reported Shipman is an engineer assigned to the 45th Launch Support Squadron at Patrick air base, and a Federal Aviation Administration pilot directory indicates she is certified as a student pilot.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8N4J3780.html

 

[VainJane]

Nowak (left); Oefelein (middle); and Shipman (right)
cnn.com

 

[Uchina]

She learned about engineering, she went to a Naval Academy. She was an astronaut. It's not like this is some bimbo we're talking about... She's a brilliant individual. I wonder what the whole story about this love triangle is, it must have been intense for it to have panned out this way.

IQ and Emotional IQ are related but not parallel, especially in this case. Take my parents for example: My mom was never bookish, but she's very much in touch with the feelings of herself and others. It's easy for her to make friends, and she's the best shoulder to cry on. My dad is a doctor and was a straight-A student throughout university, but as soon as you piss him off he pouts like a little boy.

In short, even though this women has a fantastic brain, she obviously lets her ID run rampant.

 

[silk skin paws]

Strange story, some people will do "crazy stuff" for love. It's sad that she never thought about her kids during this whole ordeal. If she just stopped, breathed and rationalize.