US astronaut Lisa Nowak was arrested on 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 Web site.
In Nowak's bag and car, police found a can of pepper spray, a steel mallet, a folding knife, rubber tubing, US$600 in cash and a wig.
Nowak -- dressed in a trench coat and wig -- followed Shipman after she arrived at Orlando International Airport early on 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.
In Nowak's car, police also found e-mails from Shipman to Oefelein and a letter in which Nowak declared her love for her fellow astronaut.
According to the Sentinel, which first broke the story, Nowak drove more than 12 hours and 1,600km from Texas to confront Shipman, described as a younger woman, at the airport in Orlando.
Nowak was charged with attempted kidnapping, battery, attempted burglary of a car and destruction of evidence. She was remanded to custody with a police recommendation that she not be granted bail because of "fear for the safety of the victim."
After becoming a US Navy flight officer in 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 mission in July to the International Space Station.
Oefelein, 41, became a naval aviator in 1990, was selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for two years of astronaut training in 1998. He served as pilot on Discovery December mission to the space station.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not