NASA and the family of astronaut
Lisa Nowak released separate statements late Tuesday on the spaceflyer's Monday arrest by Florida police.
"We
are deeply saddened by this tragic event," said Michael Coats,
director of NASA's Johnson Space Center
in Houston
where astronauts are trained, in the space agency's statement. "The charges
against Lisa Nowak are serious ones that must be decided by the judicial
system."
Police
officers in Orlando, Florida arrested Nowak early
Monday, charging her first with attempted kidnapping and other counts, then later adding the attempted murder
count based on weapons
and items authorities said they found with the astronaut or in her car.
Police
charged Nowak with acting out a bizarre plan to kidnap Colleen Shipman, a woman
the astronaut reportedly believed to be involved with another NASA spaceflyer - shuttle
pilot William Oefelein.
Nowak
allegedly drove the 900 miles (about 1,500 kilometers) from her Houston home to the Orlando
airport to confront Shipman, according to an arrest affidavit. She was released
from jail Tuesday on $25,500 bail, the Associated Press reported.
Coats
stated that Nowak, a 43-year-old U.S. Navy captain and trained space shuttle
mission specialist, has been removed from flight status and all mission-related
activities.
"She
is officially on 30-day leave and has been removed from flight status and all
mission-related activities," Coats said in the statement. "We will continue to
monitor developments in the case."
NASA
spokesperson Kylie Clem, of the Johnson
Space Center,
told SPACE.com Tuesday that Nowak was preparing to serve as a spacecraft
communicator, or CAPCOM, during the space agency's next shuttle mission -- STS-117
aboard the Atlantis orbiter -- slated to launch
on March 15.
A
veteran U.S. Navy captain and native of Washington,
D.C., Nowak is a mother to a
teenage son and two young daughters and first joined NASA's astronaut ranks in
April 1996.
After
more than a decade of training and preparation, Nowak served as a shuttle and space station
robotic arm handler during NASA's
STS-121 mission -- the agency's second test flight following the 2003 Columbia accident. The
astronaut launched
with her five fellow crewmates on July 4, 2006 on a 13-day flight to the International Space
Station (ISS), during which she and fellow robotics specialist Stephanie
Wilson were dubbed "Robochicks" by flight controllers
[image].
"Lisa
is a very intelligent, accomplished individual," Nowak's family said in a
statement released late Tuesday. "As a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, and
in her professional career in the Navy and NASA's Space Shuttle program, she
has served over 20 years with an unblemished record."
Nowak
trained alongside Oefelein in the past, but the two
astronauts have not flown together. Oefelein, a Navy
commander who joined NASA in 1998, made his first spaceflight in December
during the STS-116 mission to the ISS aboard the Discovery orbiter.
In their
statement, Nowak's family members thanked supporters for their thoughts and
prayers, and added that she is "an extremely caring and dedicated mother to her
three children."
"We
are naturally saddened and extremely concerned about the serious allegations
being made against Lisa," the family's statement read. "We love her very much,
and right now, our primary focus is on her health and well-being."
According to
the statement, Nowak and her husband Richard have been married for 19 years,
but separated a few weeks ago.
"Considering
both her personal and professional life, these alleged events are completely
out of character and have come as a tremendous shock to our family," the
family's statement read. "We hope that the public will keep an open mind about
what the facts will eventually show and that the legal system will be allowed
to run its course."
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