In 2007, Lisa Nowak, a decorated naval flight officer and NASA astronaut, found herself in the center of a scandal. She was arrested at a Florida airport after a confrontation with her romantic rival.
But when the details of the case found their way to the media, the public couldn’t get enough of Lisa’s story. It involved a 900-mile car ride, a potential murder kit, and alleged use of diapers.
Background
Lisa Marie Caputo, better known as Lisa Nowak, was born on May 10th, 1963, in Washington, D.C., to parents Alfredo and Jane Caputo. She was the eldest of three daughters.
According to Lisa herself, the 1969 Apollo 11 mission inspired her to become an astronaut. From that moment on, she religiously followed news related to space exploration and often visited the National Air and Space Museum.
After graduating as a co-valedictorian from Charles W. Woodward High School in North Bethesda, Maryland, Lisa was accepted into the prestigious Brown University and the United States Naval Academy located in Annapolis.
Her parents encouraged her to attend Brown, but Lisa chose the Naval Academy, believing it was a better fit for a future astronaut.
When Lisa arrived at the Naval Academy in 1981, she and the other women in her class encountered sexism from both male classmates and male professors.
Despite all the obstacles, Lisa graduated on May 22nd, 1985, with a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering. This accomplishment brought her one step closer to fulfilling her dream of going to space.
After graduating, Lisa was commissioned as an ensign in the United States Navy, and her first assignment was a six-month temporary duty at the Johnson Space Center.
In December 1985, Lisa began flight training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, even though women were not allowed to be a part of combat assignments at that time.
On April 6th, 1988, Lisa married Richard Nowak, whom she had met while they were both students at the Naval Academy.
In 1990, Lisa enrolled in the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, where she earned a Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering, along with a degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering, two years later.
In February 1992, Lisa gave birth to a baby boy, but motherhood didn’t slow her down.
After completing her Master’s degree, Lisa was accepted into the United States Naval Test Pilot School in Maryland. She became an aircraft systems project officer at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in 1994.
Becoming an astronaut
In June 1995, Lisa discovered that NASA was selecting a new class of astronauts, so she submitted her application as soon as possible. NASA received more than 2,400 applications, but they selected only 150 finalists. Lisa was among them.
On May 1st, 1996, she became one of the 25 mission specialists in the astronaut class and began her training in August of the same year at Johnson Space Center.
The Nowak family moved to Clear Lake City, Texas, and Lisa’s husband Richard, who was a naval flight officer, began working at the mission control center. After years of hard work, Lisa finally completed her astronaut training in August 1998.
While pregnant, Lisa was the communicator during the STS-100 mission, assisting the crew of Endeavour in installing a robot arm on the International Space Station in April 2001.
In October 2001, Lisa gave birth to twin daughters. However, after the events of September 11th, 2001, Richard was called to active duty, leaving Lisa alone to care for their three children.
On February 1st, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster happened, resulting in the passing of three of Lisa’s friends, including Laurel Clark, with whom she was very close.
Despite being incredibly busy with work, training, and caring for her children, Lisa made sure she was there for Laurel’s family as well. In the aftermath, NASA suspended all flight operations, but Lisa remained determined to go to space.
Instead of giving up on her dream, she continued training. And so, she signed up for a cold-weather survival training in Canada in January 2004. She spent two weeks with fellow astronauts, including William Oefelein, also known as Bill.
The affair
Bill was born in Virginia but grew up in Alaska. He met Lisa Nowak in 1996 at Patuxent River, just before she officially became a mission specialist at NASA. Bill himself became an astronaut in 1998.
After returning to Texas from Canada, Bill and Lisa began an affair. At that time, Bill was also married and had two children with his wife.
In February 2005, Bill’s wife discovered emails exchanged between him and Lisa, and she filed for divorce right away. Bill attempted to convince Lisa to leave her husband as well, but she wasn’t ready to do so.
Bill moved into a small apartment, and Lisa was soon spending a lot of time there. She had her own key and was frequently seen by Bill’s neighbors.
Lisa’s husband, Richard, was unaware of the affair since he was still overseas. When he finally returned home, Richard encouraged Lisa to focus on the training and preparations for her upcoming space mission, which was scheduled for the summer of 2006.
Lisa’s space flight
On July 4th, 2006, Lisa boarded Space Shuttle Discovery as a part of a 7-person crew. Their mission was to deliver supplies and equipment to the International Space Station and to test new safety and repair techniques that should prevent a disaster like Columbia from ever occurring again.
Lisa spent nearly 13 days in space and had the opportunity to operate the robotic arm she had helped install.
The crew conducted three spacewalks, but the women were unable to participate because NASA stopped making smaller spacesuits in the 1990s as a cost-cutting measure. Discovery returned to Earth on July 17th, and Lisa was awarded the Space Flight Medal.
Life falling apart
In late 2006, Bill met U.S. Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman, who worked as an engineer at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida. Colleen was single, and Bill thought it would be nice to be in a relationship and not hide it. And so, the two began dating in November of that year while he was still seeing Lisa.
Bill was a pilot for the STS-116 mission and flew Space Shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station on December 9th, 2006. During his 12-day mission, Colleen was allowed to send him emails.
Lisa had already begun to suspect that her relationship with Bill was over because he had become unusually distant just before his space mission.
In January 2007, Bill finally spoke to Lisa and informed her he was dating Colleen. He hoped they could remain friends. Meanwhile, Lisa separated from her husband that same month.
Bill and Lisa continued training for a charity race together, but that ended as well after Colleen told him she didn’t want Lisa to keep her bike at Bill’s apartment. On January 29th, 2007, Lisa learned that she wasn’t selected for the STS-120 mission.
It felt to her as though everything she had worked so hard for was falling apart right in front of her eyes. So when Bill was at work, she used her key to enter his apartment, accessed his computer, and read all the emails between him and Colleen.
Lisa discovered Colleen was coming to Texas to spend a couple of days with Bill. That pushed Lisa over the edge, and she decided to intercept her.
The incident at the airport
On February 4th, 2007, Lisa took three days off from work. She packed a black wig, a trench coat, pepper spray, a BB gun, latex gloves, rope, an 8-inch folding knife, rubber tubing, and several more items.
After loading everything into Richard’s car, Lisa embarked on a 900-mile drive from Houston, Texas, to Orlando, Florida.
Colleen’s plane was scheduled to arrive at 01:05 AM on February 5th, and Lisa was there at Orlando International Airport, waiting for her.
When Colleen landed, she couldn’t find her suitcase, so she went to baggage claim, where she was informed it would arrive on the next flight, which would be there in a couple of hours.
Colleen finally got her luggage at 03:15 AM and boarded a shuttle bus to the parking lot. Another woman, dressed in a trench coat, entered the bus at the same time, but Colleen assumed she was just another passenger.
However, once the bus arrived at the parking lot, Colleen realized that the woman was following her. To reach her car more quickly, she began running and managed to get inside and lock the door, as the woman sprinted after her.
When she got to Colleen’s vehicle, the woman tried to open the car door and then began banging on the window, saying she just needed a ride because her boyfriend had failed to pick her up.
The woman began crying, and Colleen rolled down the window a bit. That’s when she got sprayed with the pepper spray.
Unable to see, Colleen managed to put her car in reverse and reach the parking lot booth from where she called the police.
Minutes later, officers from the Orlando Police Department Airport Division arrived on the scene and found the woman who had assaulted Colleen. She was throwing items into a trash can and didn’t even attempt to run away from them.
The woman was identified as Lisa Nowak and taken into custody.
During the interview, Lisa was asked what she was doing at the airport parking lot, and she explained she just wanted to talk to Colleen. However, the items recovered from the trash can indicated Lisa was planning something more sinister.
When police officers searched Lisa’s car, they discovered alarming evidence, including a BB gun and rope. As a result, she was charged with attempted kidnapping, attempted vehicle burglary with battery, and destruction of evidence.
After Lisa’s arrest, Colleen filed a restraining order against her, stating she had been stalked by the astronaut for at least two months. Although Colleen didn’t name Bill Oefelein as her boyfriend, she did reveal that Lisa was an acquaintance of his.
Lisa’s arraignment was scheduled for February 6th, 2007, during which she pleaded not guilty. She was released on bail but was required to wear a GPS tracking device.
The Orlando Police Department tried to keep her behind bars by charging her with attempted first-degree murder, which raised the bail amount. Nonetheless, Lisa was released from jail, and she returned to Houston on February 8th.
Public attention
Once Lisa’s story broke in the media, everyone started talking about her long drive to Florida and the items found in her vehicle.
A source from the Orlando Police Department revealed they also found diapers in Lisa’s car, leading to speculation that she might have worn them to avoid stopping for bathroom breaks. However, Lisa’s attorney denied this.
The public also voiced concerns regarding Lisa’s mental health and criticized NASA for failing to perform proper selection of their astronauts. In the years following the incident, NASA included a psychiatric evaluation as a part of the physical assessment for its astronauts.
The hearings
Lisa Nowak and Bill Oefelein were both dismissed from NASA on March 7th, 2007.
In August, it was revealed that Lisa had been examined by two psychiatrists after the incident and was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, an episode of major depressive disorder, and a short psychosis at the time of the attack on Colleen Shipman.
After several setbacks due to the newly uncovered police misconduct during the search of Lisa’s vehicle and their interview with her, the case was back on track in the summer of 2009. Several months earlier, Lisa’s attorney announced his client would not be claiming insanity.
Her trial was scheduled for December 7th, 2009. However, on November 10th, 2009, Lisa Nowak accepted a plea deal. She pleaded guilty to felony burglary and misdemeanor battery and was sentenced to one year of probation.
Aftermath
Bill Oefelein left the Navy in 2008 and moved back to Wasilla, Alaska, with Colleen. The couple got married in 2010 and welcomed a baby boy in 2012. In 2015, Colleen published a teen paranormal romance novel under the pen name C.M. McCoy.
Lisa Nowak’s divorce from her husband, Richard, was finalized in the summer of 2008. She was granted custody of their three children.
Lisa currently resides just outside Houston, Texas, and is staying out of the public eye. However, her story became known around the globe and even inspired the 2019 movie called Lucy in the Sky, starring Natalie Portman.
Sources
https://www.biography.com/musicians/lisa-nowak-lucy-in-the-sky
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