US News
NASA weighs consequences of astronaut love triangle
Feb 8, 2007, 0:39 GMT
Washington - NASA said Wednesday it would re-evaluate its psychological tests after a female astronaut was charged with attempting to murder her rival for the affections of a fellow astronaut.
Lisa Nowak, 43, who operated a robotic arm on a shuttle mission last year, allegedly drove nearly 1,450 kilometres to confront her rival, Colleen Shipman, at an Orlando airport, police charge.
The Orlando Police Department charged her with attempted first degree murder Tuesday, after she was arrested early Monday and first charged with battery, attempted kidnapping, attempted vehicle burglary and destruction of evidence.
Nowak, who is married and has three children, told police she was in 'more than a working relationship, but less than a romantic relationship' with fellow astronaut William Oefelein and had made the drive from Houston, Texas to confront Shipman about her relationship with the male astronaut.
Shipman, a US Air Force officer, called police after she was followed to her car in the airport parking lot, threatened and sprayed with pepper spray by Nowak.
The love triangle gone wrong has captured US media attention with details that alleged Nowak wore diapers as astronauts do on long flights to avoid stops on the drive, used a disguise and carried a variety of weapons.
White House spokesman Tony Snow called it 'most salacious story' in the media, but referred all questions about the incident to the US space agency.
Nowak returned to Houston on 25,000 dollars bail and must wear a court-ordered monitoring device. She was reportedly ungoing tests at NASA facilities in Houston, though officials at a press conference declined to discuss the nature of her activities Wednesday.
'This is a personal and legal matter,' NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale said. 'NASA is limited in its involvement.'
Dale said Nowak had been removed from flight status and placed on 30-days leave. Her love interest Oefelein remains on flight status and working in the astronaut office.
Astronauts are subjected to extensive physical and psychological tests to be admitted to the astronaut corps and undergo general medical exams before flights, Dale said.
Intense psychological testing is given for longer flights, but not for standard shuttle flights such as the one Nowak flew on during July.
As part of a review of NASA procedures, officials will examine the doctors who conduct screenings and consider how often astronauts are assessed and how mental health concerns are addressed.
NASA will also 'determine whether there were any indicators in Nowak's case,' Dale said.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
Silly woman darn near put women's lib back 50 years. I can just picture the whole 'mixed genders in space' argument, same as 'women in the military' and all that crap... I sincerely hope there's some biological problem with her brain or something, but it's doubtful. Even smart people can act stupid.
love.. passion..attention..revenge... all these emotions exist whether you an astronaut or a CEO or a beggar in the street
Exactly! It doesn't matter if she were a school teacher or a fast food worker, it could happen to any person. She snapped, don't blame a whole agency for a single person's actions. NASA has nothing to do with it. Obviously she needs help and I hope she gets the help she needs. She has always been truly a wonderful and compassionate person. If you don't know what's going on, hold on to those opinions until you get the whole story. I'm not saying about what she did, but why.
Passionate mind games are inevitable in a mixed gender environment. A reason why the military is faltering.
Typical of a goverment agency to announce they will examine test policies and involve themselves as if they have the fix all for the world. What does NASA have to do with a woman's passion over a man? But, I am sure they will involve themselves and spend our tax money on evaluating the situation instead of spending it on real projects. What's to know? Scorned lover goes off deep end. Is NASA going to come up with a cure for that in the future or better yet, fix the past? This is much ado about nothing. It amazes me what is considered 'news' anymore.
We will never know the truth behind this love triangle. For all we know he may have promised her the moon! I mean literally.
Ummm. I'm not sure they're offering to 'fix' anything. They're looking at their policy to see if it's enough to keep that kind of off-the-deep-end episode from happening while hurtling through space at 17,000 mph in a tin can, 150 miles above the Earth. If you step out of your knee-jerk, anti-government stance, it makes good sense.
We all know why she was there in the first place: PC.
It's all very sad but this stuff happens. I just wonder how long it will take the TV media to turn it into a 'made for televison' movie. I won't be watching!
The headline reads “NASA weighs consequences of astronaut love triangle” What do they need to weigh? The decision NASA should make is painfully obvious. She needs to be dropped from the space program as no one, not even NASA can guarantee beyond a shadow of a doubt that she will not have problems again. To make any other decision risks putting other NASA employees and the agency at risk in the future. Would YOU want to stick your neck out and be the one that after some “testing” approve her to return to flight status? Why spend money and time on it? She needs professional help and she has to want to participate in that help. NASA is not a mental institution. There is only one person that can guarantee it will never happen again and that person is Nowak. NASA needs to bow out and let her go.
WHy didn;t she pepper spray the guy, after all he was the one she had some kind of bond with.
Let's hope we can put this behind us and not hold the space program hostage by a person who is sick and needs help. No program regardless of the screening process can keep all people who need help out of the program. There have been cases from the CIA to major league baseball where smart people make stupid decisions. This is not a case that is about the NASA screening program, it's a case of a human being who needs help.
'love.. passion..attention..revenge... all these emotions exist whether you an astronaut or a CEO or a beggar in the street'
Attention and revenge are not emotions, sir.
i hope nasa will be pretty through when they head to mars cant have this sort of thing out there in space what will the aliens think of us?
What is being missed, I suspect, in this story and tragedy is the very real story of the opportunity costs that many people pursuing their dreams face.
Sometimes they do not face those costs with full and stark awareness and later find that the costs are too high for them, or that their personal emotional or motivational needs require something other what than the life pathway or career they have chosen offers to them.
When this is the case, if we are smart, we provide a smooth and painless pathway for them to change roles or venues for their life situations and activities and move on in a constructive way.
I suspect that the astronaut program does not do that well ...
No amount of psych tests or counselling will be able to vett out any individuals capacity for misunderstanding or blythe emotional ignorance of their own needs or natures.
The sad part about this is that no one was there for her to help her get perspective and control emotionally over what was obviously percieved by her as a desperate need in her life.
Perhaps we ought to go back to putting only military academy or career military officers in space?
These folks are clear on career first, have already made the accomodations emotionally to dispense with normal family or love lives in favor of their careers, and will do what it takes, and 'suck it up' emotionally and keep going, with honor, and discipline.
As for female versus male ... in love or sexual addictions ... eitehr can be, I have observed, equally daft, and in fact, historically men act out violently far more often than women do ... so we have no rational basis for excluding women from either military service nor the astraunaut program on the basis of their genetic sexual expressions (male or female).
NASA has gone too far I think in trying to make things 'friendly and civilian' and needs to suck some lemmons and admit that complex flight operations need to be managed with near military precision, and discipline, whether civilian or military technically ...
Technology and emotion is not a good combination ...
What about the sexuality? My view, who cares ... they are adults, so long as they don't let it interfere with their work and discipline and responsibilities, I personally don't care if they all do sex with each otehr or the hamsters ... not my business, and I dont care, nor should any of us. Their sexuality, like their religion, and preference in ice cream flavors, is personal, no business of anyone but themselves.
However, lack of emotional control in a high risk technology business, is clearly not acceptable, regardless of the issue or reason for it.
Well, not to sound too old fashioned, but women are not meant to do everything men do and vice versa. I alway said and will stick to it: certain jobs are just plain men's jobs and should stay that way. The Army is one prime example and placing several men and a woman in a tight spaceship for an extended time is just asking for trouble.
So, before all the feminsts out there flame me to a crisp, take a deep breath and think about it. I mean really think about it. You could probably come up with several examples the other way around where you are right in saying that that particular field should be in female hands and men should not meddle with it. (I think for example that nurses should be exclusively female like it has been for so long. No male nurse can give that caring extra touch a woman can, and I do mean this the way I write it: honest)
Too bad, really, but I think that she just proved that certain coed situations do not work and it was just a matter of 'when' not 'if' and we will see similar things happen again in other fields where women think they must push in like a coldfront even though it makes things extra difficult and inconvenient.
Astronauts are held to a higher standard. They are supposed to be the 'cream of the crop.' While it is
page: 1
GingerFeb 8th, 2007 - 01:21:51
What? Look for signs? They obviously were there if there already was a restraining order against her by Shipman. They obviously were there when the neighbors heard the spousal fight in November. They obviously were there when Nowak and her husband split up two months ago. How could any 'teamwork'-type agency NOT know she was in crisis mode? What did they do? Help her hack into Shipman's Emails? Hmmm.
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