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Astronaut Faces Attempted-Murder Charges

Lisa Marie Nowak, a mission specialist on the Space Shuttle Discovery flight in 2006, was arrested Feb. 5 in Orlando after allegedly attacking a woman.
Orange County Jail via Getty Images
Lisa Marie Nowak, a mission specialist on the Space Shuttle Discovery flight in 2006, was arrested Feb. 5 in Orlando after allegedly attacking a woman.

In what NASA is calling a bizarre and sad story, an astronaut is being accused of attempted kidnapping and murder.

Police say that Lisa Nowak planned to kidnap and kill someone she considered a romantic rival for the affection of another astronaut.

Nowak, 43, is a married mother of three. She has been an astronaut for more than a decade. Her first space flight took place last summer, when she blasted off into space on the Fourth of July.

After the charge of attempted murder was added to the accusations against Nowak, the judge in the case raised her bail to $25,000.

The case is unprecedented in the history of the space agency's elite astronaut corps.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Nell Greenfieldboyce is a NPR science correspondent.