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A judge agreed Friday to toss much of the evidence against Nowak, a former astronaut accused of making a diaper-assisted, 1,000-mile drive to confront a woman vying for the affections of the same space shuttle pilot. Investigators took advantage of 44-year-old Lisa Nowak, who had not slept for more than 24 hours, coercing her into giving information in a lengthy arrest interview, Orange County Circuit Judge Marc L. Lubet said. Lubet granted a defense motion to throw out comments she made during the six-hour interview and items seized during a search of her BMW, including maps to alleged victim Colleen...

Buzz Aldrin said a former astronaut charged with attempted kidnapping should be ``admired'' -- but not excused -- for her resolve in allegedly confronting a romantic rival, according to a published report. Lisa Nowak was arrested in February after police said the married mother of three had driven nearly 1,000 miles to Orlando. ``Astronauts are not superhuman. They lead ordinary lives and have varied personalities,'' Aldrin said in comments published on Time magazine's Web site.

Were the diapers in her car actually opened and used or not?

Former Astronaut To Pursue Insanity Defense (AP) ORLANDO, Fla. Former astronaut Lisa Nowak is pursuing an insanity defense on charges that she assaulted and tried to kidnap a romantic rival, according to a document released Tuesday. Circuit Court Judge Marc L. Lubet unsealed Nowak's notice of intent to rely on a mental health defense. Florida law requires such a notice before trial to let prosecutors prepare.

Orlando, Fla. (AP) -- Former astronaut Lisa Nowak is pursuing an insanity defense on charges that she assaulted and tried to kidnap a romantic rival, according to a document released Tuesday. Defense attorney Donald Lykkebak wrote that Nowak suffered from major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, insomnia and "brief psychotic disorder with marked stressors." He noted that the already-petite Nowak had recently lost 15 percent of her body weight. "This notice does not challenge competence to stand trial, but only raises insanity at the time of the offense," . . .

Ex-astronaut Wants Ankle Bracelet Off By TRAVIS REED, Associated Press Writer ORLANDO, Fla. - Interviewing former astronaut Lisa Nowak was "like a chess game," a detective testified Friday as Nowak's attorney urged a judge to throw out evidence and a police interview in which she talked about the alleged attack on a romantic rival. Nowak also took the stand and asked the court to let her remove her electronic monitoring bracelet, complaining that it cuts her ankle and gets in the way of her military boot lace. As Nowak testified, the rival she was accused of pepper spraying in an...

ORLANDO, Fla. — Impatient. Defensive. Emotional. Incoherent. Astronaut Lisa Nowak is all of these things in a four-hour video, released today, of her stay in a holding cell immediately after her arrest at the airport here in February. As officers come in and out of her cell to give her something to drink or take her to the restroom, Nowak seems frustrated and bewildered by repeated questions implying her intentions toward her romantic rival Colleen Shipman, an officer at Patrick Air Force Base near Cape Canaveral, Fla., were more than just to talk. After her arrest on charges of attempted...

ORLANDO, Fla. - Former astronaut Lisa Nowak, accused of attacking a romantic rival, asked a judge Friday to let her remove her electronic monitoring ankle bracelet, saying that it cuts her ankle and gets in the way of her military boot laces. Former astronaut Lisa Nowak enters the courtroom before a hearing at the Orange County courthouse in Orlando, Fla., Friday, Aug. 24, 2007. Nowak, accused of attacking a romantic rival, arrived in court Friday with a swarm of photographers snapping away as she was escorted to a private room to prepare. (AP Photo/John Raoux) Nowak promised to abide by...

ORLANDO, FLA. — Former astronaut Lisa Nowak wants a judge to let her remove the ankle bracelet that allows authorities to track her location as she awaits trial for allegedly attacking a romantic rival, saying it is "an unnecessary and excessive expense." Nowak is paying $105 a week — $2,940 so far — for the monitoring device as a condition of her release, according to a court filing her attorney says was made Thursday. The clerk at the Circuit Court in Orange County could not find the filing, but said it could be in the pipeline. Nowak also argues that...

Report: Drunk astronauts were allowed to fly BY MARTIN MERZER NASA allowed at least two astronauts to fly into space even though they were so drunk that flight surgeons considered them a safety risk, according to a report published Thursday by Aviation Week and Space Technology.In a brief account reported on the publication's website, the trade journal said an independent health panel commissioned by NASA also found a pattern of ''heavy use of alcohol'' by astronauts before launch.The report did not include any details about which astronauts or space programs were involved or how recently the problems might have...

Last Updated: Saturday, 26 May 2007, 15:16 GMT 16:16 UK William Oefelein admitted to having had an affair with Ms Novak The Space Shuttle pilot involved in a love triangle that led to a bizarre show-down between a female astronaut and her rival is to leave Nasa. William Oefelein, 42, has been reassigned to the navy, his original corps, the US space agency said. Astronaut Lisa Nowak, who had an affair with him, is awaiting trial on charges of attempted kidnapping and assault. In February she drove across five states to confront her love rival and pepper-sprayed her car. On...

ORLANDO, Fla. - A police search of former astronaut Lisa Nowak's car turned up bondage photos on a computer disk, British currency and pills, according to documents released Tuesday by prosecutors. This photo released by the Orlando State's Attorney office on Tuesday April 10, 2007, shows a floppy disk and portable storage devices that were recovered from the car driven by NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak after she was arrested for trying to kidnap a romantic rival. Nowak was arrested in February 2007 after police say she drove from Houston to Florida to confront Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman. Authorities have...

Police found bondage photos on a computer disk, British currency and pills in former astronaut Lisa Nowak's car after she was arrested for trying to kidnap a romantic rival, according to documents released Tuesday by the State Attorney's Office. The floppy disk contained 16 images, 15 of them showing a woman sometimes nude, according to a forensic examination report by the Orlando Police Department. Nearly all of the images depicted scenes of bondage, the report said. The documents did not make clear if Nowak was the woman in the photos or who to whom the disks belonged. Nowak's attorney, Donald...

"The former NASA astronaut accused of trying to kidnap a woman while in possession of a steel mallet, rubber tubing and a knife will help develop flight lesson plans at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi."

Wednesday's actions by NASA to terminate the status of Capt. Lisa Marie Nowak, USN, as an astronaut, effective the next day, raise questions of fairness and of due process, which is the heart of our legal system. This unprecedented quest for speed was emphasized by the fact that Nowak's official biography was simultaneously, overnight, moved from the "Active Astronauts" category to the "Former Astronauts" category with a bland notation that she "returned to navy duty effective March 8, 2007." A month ago, Capt. Nowak was charged with trying to kidnap a woman she regarded as her romantic rival for the...

NASA Astronaut Lisa Nowak Collected E-mails Sent between Former Lover Bill Oefelein and His New Girlfriend: March 6, 2007 — - NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak carried printouts of romantic e-mails between her former boyfriend, space shuttle pilot Bill Oefelein, and his new girlfriend when she drove roughly 900 miles in an alleged attempt to abduct the girlfriend in early February, according to police evidence released Monday. The steamy e-mail exchanges were sent back and forth between Oefelein and Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman -- including at least one received while Oefelein was on a shuttle mission last December. The evidence...

A successful married man with young children at home pursues a romantic liaison with a co-worker. When the co-worker doesn’t sufficiently reciprocate his affections, he stalks her boyfriend for two months, and devises a plan to kill him. He collects weapons, disguises himself, packs up some garbage bags to dispose of the body, and drives 900 miles to attack his rival. He launches the assault but the boyfriend manages to escape and notify the police, and the man is arrested and charged with attempted murder. Would CBS commentator Harry Smith express sympathy for this “poor" fellow for “falling in love”...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- What would happen if an astronaut came unglued in space and, say, destroyed the ship's oxygen system or tried to open the hatch and kill everyone aboard? That was the question on some minds after the apparent breakdown of Lisa Nowak, arrested in Orlando this month on charges she tried to kidnap and kill a woman she regarded as her rival for another astronaut's affections. It turns out NASA has a detailed set of written procedures for dealing with a suicidal or psychotic astronaut in space. The documents, obtained this week by The Associated Press, say...

PARIS (AFP) - What's the biggest hurdle to setting up a colony on the Moon or getting mankind to Mars and beyond? Experts poring over plans to return to the Moon by 2018 and later stride to Mars believe the greatest-ever gamble in the history of space may ultimately depend on keeping the mind and body sound. Anxiety, loneliness and tensions with crewmates, a daily battle to maintain fitness and avoid accidents, DNA-shredding radiation from solar flares or cosmic rays -- all these make mental and physical health the key to whether a long-term mission will succeed or fail catastrophically....

Colleen Shipman said the protective order against the astronaut is no longer necessary. The Associated Press HOUSTON - A woman has withdrawn a request for a protective order against an astronaut charged with attacking her because she considered her a romantic rival. Colleen Shipman, 30, an Air Force captain from Florida, dropped her bid for a petition for "protection against repeat violence" Thursday, officials said Friday. Shipman said in court documents that the order against Lisa Nowak was no longer necessary. As a condition of her release from jail, Nowak was fitted with an electronic monitor on her ankle. It...

Check out JealousAstronaut.com and prepare to laugh your space helmet off.

We can learn something about life from the Lisa Nowak story. ================ Poor Robochick! There is probably some high moral reason that I shouldn’t feel sorry for astronaut Lisa Nowak, who is now charged with attempted murder and kidnapping, but I just can’t help it. And lots of people I know are also riveted by this tale, straight out of Desperate Housewives, filled with so many kooky soap-opera touches. The wig. The pepper spray. The diaper. And maybe, worst of all, the object of her affections, a “Top Gun” pilot with the unfortunate nickname of “Billy-O.” Sure, I know that...

MIDI - MAJOR TOM (near the bottom of the midi site) Oefelein's the guy...hunky pilot Joystick's on her mind...all the time Now Lisa has been charged...the DA filed it It was Lust in Space The poor astronaut...poor astronaut On rival Colleen, she was preying She had tubing and...a big knife She practiced several times her pepper spraying It was Lust in Space Poor astronaut...poor astronaut 5 4 3 2 1....there's no time to be a wiper Lisa had to put some diapers on She drove on and on a thousand miles She must be on time for the plane...

A man carrying a BB gun was shot by a Northeast Heights shop owner while attempting to hold it up Friday night. The incident happened at about 7:30 at the Higher Source smoke shop near Lomas and Wyoming. The co-owner of the shop reportedly shot the suspected robber with a nine millimeter handgun. When police arrived, they found the suspected robber with two to three gunshot wounds to the chest. “It appears at this point that the offender, when he walked into the business, may have had a BB gun,” said APD spokeswoman Trish Hoffman. “It looks very much like...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The star-crossed space cadet who allegedly made it her mission to murder the woman dating her Cape Canaveral crush helped break up his 17-year marriage, his former mother-in-law said yesterday.

ON EARTH, Lisa Nowak masqueraded as a brilliant rocket scientist, wife and mother of three. But the diaper-wearing wacko-naut went into orbit - transforming into a scary, yet strangely familiar, creature. She is the Amy Fisher of the space program. This widely accomplished space lady, nicknamed "Robochick" for her skill at handling the space shut tle's robotic arm, turns out to be just another sexually needy, fiercely aggressive wild child. Only this wack job was armed with pepper spray and - for reasons too icky to contemplate - a rubber hose. It makes you wonder if NASA should channel Dr....

Even before she was charged with attempted first-degree murder, attempted kidnapping and three other crimes, there were signs that not everything was right in her life UNTIL a few months ago, Lisa Nowak’s life seemed to be on a perfect trajectory. She became an astronaut after winning a series of Navy service awards. She had flown on the shuttle Discovery, and was a mother of three children. She said in a September interview with Ladies Home Journal that her husband, Richard, “works in Mission Control, so he’s part of the whole space business, too. And supportive also.� But even...

Excerpt - HOUSTON - Lisa Nowak chose a juggling act of dauntingly high difficulty: to be an astronaut and a mother of three. Her background — high school valedictorian, Naval Academy graduate, test pilot — seemed to equip her for the challenge. Yet as she and some of her acquaintances acknowledged, the stresses on her and her family were extraordinarily intense. On Wednesday, transformed from space hero to criminal suspect, Nowak returned to Houston for a medical assessment, a day after she was charged in Florida with attempted murder and attempted kidnapping in what police depicted as a love triangle...

HOUSTON — Astronaut Lisa Nowak returned to Texas on Wednesday, a day after being charged in Florida with trying to murder the woman she believed was her romantic rival for a space shuttle pilot's affections.

If I were doing the monologue tonight, here's a few I've come up with:1. This is one lady you don't want holding your cord on your space walk.2. Reportedly she had a thing for a male astronaut. Her motto: If this shuttle's rockin', don't come nockin'.3) Reportedly she drove 1000 miles in diapers. If she's acquitted, she can become a spokesmodel for Depends.

ASSOCIATED PRESS ORLANDO, Fla. – A NASA astronaut charged with attempting to kidnap a romantic rival in a love triangle with another astronaut was allowed to go free on bail Tuesday on the condition that she not contact the alleged victim. The judge told Lisa Marie Nowak she could be released on $15,500 bond, then asked if she understood the conditions. She responded “yes.” Nowak, a married mother of three, stood in a jail uniform, looking down during most of the hearing. She planned to return home to Houston, and the judge ordered her to wear a tracking device. The...

Lisa Marie Nowak was accustomed to hard training, prolonged deprivation and a strong sense of mission. But this is not exactly what NASA had in mind when it made her an astronaut. Equipped with a knife, pellet pistol, can of pepper spray, steel mallet and 4 feet of rubber tubing, Nowak arrived at Orlando International Airport early Monday morning, police said, to confront a romantic rival for fellow astronaut Bill Oefelein. Nowak, 43, remains in Orange County Jail without bail on a variety of charges arising from a confrontation with Colleen Shipman, an Air Force captain whom she is accused...

A NASA astronaut faces her first appearance before a judge this morning after police say she attacked her rival for another astronaut's attention at Orlando International Airport Monday. Lisa Marie Nowak drove more than 12 hours from Texas to meet the 1 a.m. flight of a younger woman who had also been seeing the astronaut Nowak pined for, according to Orlando police. She is being held on no bond at Orange County Jail and has a court appearance at 9 a.m. Nowak -- who was a mission specialist on a Space Shuttle Discovery flight last summer -- was wearing a...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- An astronaut drove 900 miles and donned a disguise to confront a woman she believed was her rival for the affections of a space shuttle pilot, police said. She was arrested Monday and charged with attempted kidnapping and other counts. U.S. Navy Capt. Lisa Nowak, 43, who flew last July on a shuttle mission to the international space station, was also charged with attempted vehicle burglary with battery, destruction of evidence and battery. She was denied bail. Police said Nowak drove from her home in Houston to the Orlando International Airport to confront Colleen Shipman. Nowak believed...

Ms Nowak said she did not intend to harm Ms Shipman A US astronaut has been charged with trying to kidnap a woman she thought was a rival for the affection of a space shuttle pilot. Navy Capt Lisa Nowak, 43, who flew to the international space station last July, was charged with attempted kidnapping, battery and other crimes. She drove from Texas to Florida to confront Colleen Shipman, disguised in a wig and trench coat. Police said Capt Nowak, who was denied bail, used pepper spray on Ms Shipman. The man in the love triangle was said to...

ORLANDO, Fla. - An astronaut drove 900 miles and donned a disguise to confront a woman she believed was her rival for the affections of a space shuttle pilot, police said. She was arrested Monday and charged with attempted kidnapping and other counts. U.S. Navy Capt. Lisa Nowak, 43, who flew last July on a shuttle mission to the international space station, was also charged with attempted vehicle burglary with battery, destruction of evidence and battery. She was denied bail. Police said Nowak drove from her home in Houston to the Orlando International Airport to confront Colleen Shipman. Nowak believed...

Astronaut Arrested Over Love Spat Last Edited: Monday, 05 Feb 2007, 9:47 PM EST Created: Monday, 05 Feb 2007, 7:24 PM EST ORLANDO, FL (WOFL) -- -- U.S. Navy Commander and Discovery Astronaut, Lisa Nowak, 43, was arrested early Monday morning at Orlando International Airpot following an altercation with another woman. Police say Nowak drove from Houston to Orlando to meet Colleen Shipman. According to reports, once Shipman arrived at the airport, Nowak followed her to a nearby lot where she had parked her car. As Shipman entered her car, Nowak approached Shipman, slapping on the window and trying to...

A NASA astronaut is being held without bail after police say she attacked her rival for another astronaut's attention at Orlando International Airport Monday. Lisa Marie Nowak drove more than 12 hours from Texas to meet the 1 a.m. flight of a younger woman who had also been seeing the astronaut Nowak pined for, according to Orlando police. Nowak -- who was a mission specialist on a Discovery launch last summer -- was wearing a trench coat and wig and had a knife, BB pistol, and latex gloves in her car, reports show. They also found diapers, which Nowak said...

A NASA astronaut is charged with attacking her rival for another astronaut's attention early Monday at Orlando International Airport, the Orlando Sentinel has learned. Lisa Marie Nowak drove from Texas to meet the 1 a.m. flight of a younger woman who had also been seeing the male astronaut Nowak pined for, according to Orlando police. Nowak -- who was a mission specialist on a Discovery launch last summer -- was wearing a trench coat and wig and had a knife, BB pistol, rubber tubing and plastic bags, reports show. Once U.S. Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman arrived, Nowak followed her...