Love triangle astronaut charged with battery, not attempted murder

Mar 2, 2007, 23:19 GMT

Washington - A US astronaut who attacked another woman in a bizarre love triangle earlier this month was charged with battery and attempted kidnapping on Friday, but prosecutors dropped an attempted murder charge.

Lisa Nowak, 43, who participated in her first shuttle mission last year, allegedly drove nearly 1,450 kilometres wearing a diaper to eliminate restroom breaks in a race to intercept a rival for a male astronauts affections at an Orlando airport, police charge.

Nowak, who is married and has three children, told police she was in an extramarital relationship with fellow astronaut William Oefelein and had made the drive from Houston, Texas to confront Colleen Shipman about her relationship with Oefelein.

Orlando police spokesman Robert Pigman said that Novak was charged with 'attempted kidnapping with intent to inflict bodily harm,' as well as armed robbery and battery.

The astronaut first appeared in court February 5 - at which time prosecutors had also filed attempted murder charges - and is currently back in Houston on 25,000-dollar bail, but must wear a monitoring device that would tell police her location and alert her victim if she entered Florida.

Shipman, a US Air Force officer, called police after she was followed to her car in the Orlando airport parking lot and threatened by Nowak.

Nowak wore a disguise and a black wig, slapped at Shipman's car windows and tried to get into the car, according to a police affidavit. She said she wanted to talk with Shipman about the relationship and wore the disguise so Shipman would agree to talk.

Nowak flew her first shuttle mission in July 2006 on the Discovery flight to the International Space Station, where she operated a remote arm during spacewalks. She had been with NASA since 1996 and served in mission control, the operations planning and astronaut robotics branches.

At the time of her arrest in early February, Nowak was placed on 30-day leave and had been removed from flight status and mission- related activities.