NASA decided to unveil more than 200 pages of emails
related to the strange case of an astronaut accused of trying to kidnap her
romantic rival.
For those of us who do not know the real story about the well-known
love triangle at NASA, here is the short version of it.
The NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak was charged with assault,
attempted kidnapping and burglary after she allegedly drove more than 1000
kilometers from Houston, Texas
to the Orlando International
Airport in Florida where she confronted the girlfriend
of another astronaut William Oefelein. Nowak was reportedly romantically linked
with Oefelien and went to Orlando
on February 5 in order to face out his new lover, Navy officer Colleen Shipman.
She was armed with a steel mallet, knife and BB gun at the time of the
incident. She also carried black gloves, rubber tubing and trash bags.
According to police reports and Shipman’s testimony, Nowak
sprayed pepper spray into her rival's car and tried to enter the vehicle before Shipman
managed to drive off from the airport’s parking lot. Police officers quickly
arrived at the airport and arrested the 44-year-old woman.
After the February incident, Nowak was released on bail and
reassigned as a Navy officer at the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas. Her legal battle
continues in Orlando
where she is scheduled to stand trial in April. Her attorney said that he
would use the insanity defense. If convicted though, she could face up to life
in prison.
as for the documents released by the NASA, they include emails between
Nowak and Oefelein, as well as between Oefelein and Shipman. They also include
emails of support sent to Novak’s boss after her February arrest.
The emails were posted by NASA on a website on Wednesday in
response to Freedom of Information Act requests from many news organizations,
including The New York Times.
Those between Nowak and Orfelein stretch from mid-2004 to
January 2007 most of them about routine items such as schedules, technical
issues about the shuttle and astronaut life insurance. Some of the later ones
have a friendlier tone it seems. Nowak offers to get Oefelein lunch, invites
him to a Houston Astros baseball game being attended by other astronauts, asks
for advice on a speaking engagement, asks for a ride to a rodeo and discusses
plans to attend a party.
However more overtly romantic are emails between Oefelein
and Shipman. He begins an email in early 2007 “Hey cutie” and signs it “Love
you.” In another, they talk about Shipman joining Oefelein on an upcoming crew
trip to Alaska.
"They want your size for the arctic gear for the snow machine outting
[sic]. I think I can figure that out -- sized sexy and athletic," Oefelein
wrote.
In closing, Oefelein jokes about their overnight arrangements, saying that
"due to noise requirements" they will need to stay at a hotel rather
than at his parents' home.
"These e-mails released by NASA are deceptively incomplete as they
selectively omitted any e-mail NASA considered personal. They have little if anything
to do with Lisa Nowak's case," Nowak’s lawyer, Don Kykkeback said through her
client’s representative Marti Mackenzie, the Associated Press reports.
Oefelein could not be reached for comment.
