Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Astronauts Gone Wild!

I am, as my postings state, the Brave Astronaut. However, I have no affiliation with the space program or NASA. I only went to a school that had a team named after some earlier astronauts. I like the space program, think that NASA is underfunded and should work to explore space more. The shuttle fleet continues to age and you don't hear much about what is happening in Houston or Cape Kennedy.

Until this week.

Pick a news outlet. Go to Google News and type in "Lisa Nowak." Unless you have been living under a rock this week, you are no doubt aware of the sordid details that have come to light in what is being described as the NASA love triangle.

In a nutshell, Lisa Nowak, who grew up here in Rockville, where I live, was a model student, who wanted to be in space. Evidently, too much (or too little) oxygen has pushed her around the bend. Nowak left her home in Houston (where she is married with children) and drove to the Orlando airport (we'll put aside the diapers she wore on the 11-hour trip, that's a whole different story) to accost another woman, Colleen Shipman, who had a relationship with another astronaut, Bill Oefelein, and tried to kill / kidnap Shipman.

Nowak, was arrested on charges of attempted murder and attempted kidnapping. She was returned to Houston, where she has been relieved of her duties and subjected to additional psychiatric testing.

Surprisingly, NASA is revising its psychological screening of astronauts after Nowak was charged with attempted murder. And to think that last week, the biggest problem the space program had was about money.

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