US astronaut arrested for attempted kidnapping

[Jack]

US astronaut arrested for attempted kidnapping

US astronaut Lisa Nowak was arrested Monday and charged with attacking and trying to kidnap a woman she considered a rival for the attention of fellow astronaut William Oefelein, court documents and local media said. Nowak, 43, was arrested after she pepper sprayed Colleen Shipman inside her car at an airport parking lot, according to a police affidavit posted on the Orlando Sentinel newspaper's website. Police found in Nowak's bag and car a can of pepper spray, a steel mallet, a folding knife, rubber tubing, US$600 ($774) in cash and a wig. Nowak — dressed in a trench coat and wig — followed Shipman after she arrived at Orlando International Airport early Monday morning to a parking lot, where she doused her eyes with pepper spray after she got into her car. In a statement to police, Nowak admitted planning to "scare" Shipman into talking with her about her relationship with Oefelein, but that she had no intention of harming her. Nowak was charged with attempted kidnapping, battery, attempted burglary of a car and destruction of evidence, and remanded in custody with a police recommendation that she not be granted bail because of "fear for the safety of the victim." A US Navy flight officer from 1987, Nowak trained for two years as an astronaut at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, in 1996. She worked in Mission Control as prime communicator with orbiting crews and flew as mission specialist on the shuttle Discovery's July 4-17, 2006 mission to the International Space Station.

We don't have a News of the Weird category, so I'm posting this here (it did just break today :))
I thought they subjected candidates for the astronaut program to rigorous psychological testing. It appears someone cheated on the tests.

[Osborn F Enready]

Or that there are several flaws to the methods of "psychological profiling".

Bizarre.....

[brien]

Or perhaps it was the program that pushed her over the line. Whatever, I think she forgot to come down from her last trip in space. Or, she at least left her mind up there. I wonder if she ran into Major Tom ? :)

[xyzer]

Or that there are several flaws to the methods of "psychological profiling

Agree osborn! She appears nutty as a fruit cake! Wasn't there some previous indication of her instability and rejection of consequences? Apparently she carried so much extra stuff(knife, pepper spray, air gun,etc) she had trouble making up her mind on what approach she would use on her rival for this guys affection.?
Not good indications of the mental stability and judgement of this Astronut!?
Either testing or observation somewhere in her career should have indicated this to someone?

[Scribbler1]

Keep in mind these people are STILL made of "the right stuff" when they become astronauts, and after. These people must wait YEARS before they get a shot at going into Space and during that time they are probably the most scrutinized people on the planet. And apparently there was nothing hinting she may snap in her career in the Navy as well.
My uneducated guess is that there were forces acting on this woman way over and above the pressures and risks you face as an astronaut, and certainly more than NASA's head shrinkers could have anticipated. And I'm quite sure they try to anticipate virtually EVERYTHING!

At this point, I'm just curious as to what it would take to send an ASTRONAUT around the bend.
Think about it. Apollo 1 burned three astronauts to death, yet there were people who still volunteered to fly to the Moon.
TWO of the Shuttles (out of a very small fleet) were spectacularly destroyed, yet there are STILL people like this woman who get in line to volunteer to ride it into space.

It simply defies my ability to understand what could make THAT kind of mind short circuit.

[Fonceai]

This is more of a crime of passion.

Sure she had the potential to be loony, but it took the extreme emotions to bring it out.

---

Besides, realize what it is you think NASA should be able to do...

To understand and predict the thoughts and motivations of women.

Are you insane?

You think NASA can figure out how to do something that no man has yet to do consistently?

[Scribbler1]

Considering they send people into Space in a relatively small metal container, with absolutely NO way to leave for extended periods of time, I think one of the things they may look for is the potential for someone to go off their spool and kill someone.

[Jack]

Quote by: Fonceai Are you insane?

That's a topic for another thread...
but the short answer is yeah, most likely.

[Fonceai]

LOL

One of the benefits of being a gay male...

Not having to worry over solving the conundrum of female motivational behavior.

[tinybear]

She drove from Houston to Orlando without stopping. Boy, that's a long drive.

[Scribbler1]

Quote by: tinybear She drove from Houston to Orlando without stopping. Boy, that's a long drive.

While people think it's funny that she was wearing "diapers", astronauts wear them all the time.
I drove 100 miles to Chicago with two bathroom breaks and from Orlando to Delaware on NONE.
It can be done.

[Compugasm]

Diapers, rubber tubing... what?

I keep thinking of that scene in Apollo 13 where a room full of engineers try and solve a malfunction in a space capsule, with items the astronauts have available on the craft.

[tinybear]

She must've been really desperate. Poor girl. She's finished now.

[xyzer]

To understand and predict the thoughts and motivations of women. Are you insane?

Laughing hysterically! The great unknown? Female behavior! ....

[Compugasm]

Quote by: tinybear She must've been really desperate. Poor girl. She's finished now.

A normal person, maybe. But because she's a person of note; I suspect she could make good money selling her story to TV, or speaking engagements about social pressure and mental breakdowns.

She might be "finished" as an astronaut, but even OJ Simpson still makes a living somehow. So, I suspect this girl won't fade into homelessness and die in an alley somewhere.

[another day]

See, this is why we shouldn't let women hold jobs of any importance. And they shouldn't vote either.

Haha just kidding. Crazy bird though.

[rmnunez]

Apparently NASA will now re-check their selection process:
NASA to review astronaut screening after love triangle scandal

[Epistemologist]

I think that this cartoon is relevant:

[Duke1985]

I was watching a NASA rep on CNN the other day talk about this one and CNN's interviewer asked, "isn't there a mental screening for NASA?"
The NASA Rep replied, "Its not as thorough as you might think, you have to be kinda crazy to want to get on a rocket."

With that I was no longer surprised someone from NASA could flip.

[Scribbler1]

I would agree that you have to be a little crazy to ride into space atop a potential bomb, but these astronauts are also known to be among the most disciplined and unflappable people any of us are likely to meet.

Until any evidence proves otherwise I'll just assume she had taken one too many emotional knocks and just lost it, or there was something there that was WAY too far down for anyone to have spotted it.

After all, they are still human beings. How many times has some psycho murderer been caught and when the Media interviews the neighbors, they usually say things like, "He was always a nice, friendly, quiet guy. A good neighbor who invited everybody to his barbeques and was really nice to the kids. I never would have thought he was capable of something like (insert psycho crime here)."