After reaching the pinnacle of her profession on her shuttle mission last summer, Nowak nose-dived, landing in police custody in Orlando, Fla., for allegedly attacking a romantic rival. She now faces a host of possible charges, including attempted murder, attempted kidnapping and battery (the state attorney’s office in Florida will decide on formal charges soon). After being released on $25,500 bail last Wednesday, she returned to her Houston home wearing an electronic ankle bracelet to monitor her movements. Nowak’s case marks the first time an active-duty NASA astronaut has been accused of a felony, according to the space agency. In the aftermath, NASA is reviewing its psychological screening and evaluation procedures. But the most perplexing question remains: why did Nowak snap?
Her personal life, it seems, was a shambles. She recently separated from her husband of 19 years, according to a family statement. And she struck up some sort of relationship with another astronaut, William Oefelein, who piloted Discovery in a mission last December. Interviewed by police, Nowak described the attachment as “more than a working relationship, but less than a romantic relationship.” Yet Oefelein, a divorced father of two, had a girlfriend: Colleen Shipman, a 30-year-old Air Force captain assigned to a NASA support squadron near Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The two met at a party prior to Oefelein’s December mission, says Babette Merchant, Shipman’s friend and neighbor. Nowak knew about their relationship–and allegedly sought to disrupt it. According to a petition for a restraining order that Shipman filed last week after the arrest, Nowak had been stalking her for two months.
Last week Nowak allegedly went further. She told police that she retrieved the details of Shipman’s flight plans to Orlando from Oefelein’s computer. She printed out directions to the airport and to Shipman’s home. And she equipped herself with an ominous assortment of gear: a BB gun, a knife, a steel mallet, pepper spray, rubber tubing, large plastic bags and six latex gloves. Then she set out from Houston for the 900-mile drive to Orlando. Nowak was apparent-ly so determined to arrive quickly that she wore diapers–a common practice for astronauts, who have used NASA-designed undergarments for decades–to avoid restroom stops. Once in Orlando, police say, she checked into a La Quinta Inn under a false name and slipped into disguise–a tan trench coat and a black wig.
At the airport terminal, according to police, Nowak spotted Shipman and followed her on to a bus headed to the long-term parking lot. As Shipman walked to her car, she told cops that she heard “running footsteps” approaching her. Panicked, she quickly got in the vehicle and locked the doors. Nowak rapped on the window. “Can you help me, please?” she asked Shipman, who had never met her before. “My boyfriend was supposed to pick me up and he is not here.” She asked to use Shipman’s cell phone, but Shipman refused. When Nowak began to cry, Shipman lowered her window a few inches. Then Nowak allegedly blasted pepper spray into her face. Shipman sped off in her car and summoned police, who eventually tracked down Nowak and arrested her.
Nowak told authorities that “she only wanted to scare Ms. Shipman into talking with her,” according to an affidavit. When cops asked Nowak about the pepper spray, she responded, “That was stupid.” Prosecutors accuse her of trying to carry out a plot to kidnap or injure Shipman. Nowak’s attorney, Donald Lykkebak, said in court last week that his client was a “desperate woman” who made a “mistake,” but that prosecutors went overboard with charges. Nowak’s colleagues at NASA were stunned. “Our primary concern is her health and well-being and that she get through this,” says fellow astronaut Steve Lindsey. (Nowak has been suspended from flight duties; Oefelein took leave to be with Shipman.)
Multiple theories surfaced to explain Nowak’s bizarre behavior. Dr. James Hollis, a psychoanalyst and executive director of the Jung Educational Center of Houston, considers it a case of obsessive love. Nowak “was clearly experiencing the fear of abandonment,” he says, one “so terrifying that she had to try to secure the love object and eliminate the threat.” As people mature, they’re “able to filter out that primal impulse,” Hollis explains. “But any one of us, in a con-dition of stress or in impairment of another kind, can act out in often embarrass-ing ways.” Perhaps No-wak’s hard-charging personality made her more vulnerable to such a lapse.
How, exactly, did Nowak get past NASA’s initial screening process? The space agency subjects astronaut applicants to a battery of psychological tests, as well as two two-hour sessions with a psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist. The purpose: to rule out candidates prone to neurotic, obsessive-compulsive or antisocial behavior, among other things. But “it’s hard to say, especially in this case, whether the source [of Nowak’s troubles] is a personality trait or a particular stress-or that nobody could have predicted at the time she underwent screening,” says Dr. Lawrence Palinkas, an expert in aerospace psychology at the University of Southern California. NASA officials have announced that they would be reviewing Nowak’s history to see if evaluators missed any red flags. Moreover, they launched two separate reviews of the agency’s evaluation procedures, which don’t currently include ongoing psychological assessments.
Nowak’s descent mars an otherwise stellar career. Growing up in Rockville, Md., she “worked hard” and “was obviously very driven,” says Jack Flyer, a former high-school classmate. She “had high aspirations and she achieved all of them, every single one.” She took part in a variety of activities–student government, field hockey, track, math team–and was co-valedictorian. The quote she selected for her senior yearbook entry, by Henry David Thoreau, presaged her success: “I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.”
After high school, Nowak joined the U.S. Naval Academy and graduated in 1985 with an aeronautical-engineering degree. From there, she went on to become a test pilot, logging more than 1,500 flight hours on more than 30 different aircraft. In 1996, she was admitted to the space program and began the rigorous training that eventually led to her Discovery mission. Last fall, after the voyage, she returned to her hometown to visit her old schools. Feted as a celebrity, she regaled students with jaw-dropping tales of galactic adventure. Gordon Franks’s daughter Alexis, 8, was wowed. After hearing the news of the arrest, he says Alexis told him, “Daddy, I don’t understand. She’s a hero.” Franks replied, “You only see what’s on the outside. You don’t know what goes on behind closed doors.” Nor does anyone else, ultimately, except for Nowak.
