US astronaut charged with attempted kidnapping

Orlando,(Fla) Mar 3: NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak, who stunned colleagues by driving from Houston to Orlando in diapers to confront a woman she thought was a love rival, was charged with attempted kidnapping but not with attempted murder, prosecutors said today.

The former space shuttle crew member also was formally charged on Friday with battery and car burglary with assault after trying to pepper spray the woman she thought was competing with her for the attention of another astronaut, said prosecutors in Orlando.

Shortly after Nowak was arrested on February 6, prosecutors said she was trying to kill US Air Force Capt Colleen Shipman, who she believed was a rival for the attention of astronaut Bill Oefelein.

But the attempted first-degree murder charge, which carried a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, was dropped without explanation and prosecutors declined to comment.

Nowak, who has three children and recently separated from her husband, was released on bail shortly after her arrest and allowed to return to her home in Houston.

Police said Nowak, a flight engineer who made her first trip into space in July to the International Space Station aboard shuttle Discovery, sped the 1,530 km from Houston to Orlando wearing diapers so she would not have to stop at a bathroom.

Reuters