Lisa Nowak

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Lisa Nowak
Lisa Nowak
Country: United States
Organization: NASA
selected on May 1, 1996
(16th NASA Group)
Calls: 1 space flight
Begin: 4th July 2006
Landing: July 17, 2006
Time in space: 12d 18h ​​36m
EVA inserts: No
retired on March 8, 2007
Space flights

Lisa Marie Nowak (born Lisa Marie Caputo in the US capital Washington , May 10, 1963 ) is a former American astronaut . She caused a sensation in public when she was arrested seven months after her first and only space flight for alleged involvement in a jealous drama. A month later, she was expelled from the astronaut group by NASA .

education

Nowak left the 1981 Charles W. Woodward High School in Rockville ( Maryland ). She decided to study aerospace engineering . First at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis (Maryland), which awarded her a bachelor's degree in May 1985 .

After graduating from the Naval Academy, Nowak worked for half a year at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Texas before attending flight school. Between June and November 1985 she worked as a technician for the Shuttle Training Aircraft Branch at Ellington Airfield, which is part of the JSC. She then trained as a Naval Flight Officer at the Naval Aviation Schools Command (NASC) in Pensacola ( Florida ) for a year and a half. In June 1987 she dropped out of NASC and studied electronic warfare at the Electronic Warfare School in Corry Station, Florida before moving to California. Another flight training at Naval Air Station Lemoore, 65 kilometers south of Fresno , followed the transfer to a squadron for electronic warfare at Naval Air Station Point Mugu. As a proven specialist in electronic warfare, she resumed her studies in 1990.

With a master's degree in aerospace engineering and a diploma in aerospace engineering, Nowak left the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, California in 1992 and moved back to the east coast of the USA. She joined the Naval Test Pilot School (NTPS) in Patuxent River, Maryland and worked in the systems engineering department for a year. She then attended an advanced course in aerospace engineering , which she successfully completed in June 1994. She then worked in various departments of the NTPS until she switched to Naval Air Systems Command. As a systems engineer, she worked in Arlington County ( Virginia ), among other things, developing new instruments for the F / A-18 "Hornet" fighter aircraft .

Astronaut activity

Lisa Nowak came to NASA with the 16th group of astronauts. Nowak was one of a total of 2,432 candidates who met the formal selection criteria. This resulted in 123 finalists who visited the JSC in Houston between October 1995 and February 1996 for interviews and medical examinations. Nowak presented himself to the selection committee with the second group of finalists in early November 1995.

The disproportionate size of the 1996 class could be due to an internal NASA study commissioned the year before with the aim of finding out whether the agency could not get by with fewer astronauts. The surprising result was that the astronaut office was understaffed with just over 90 active space travelers at the time. Between 120 and 130 astronauts would be needed for the construction phase of the International Space Station (ISS). After that, according to the study, the corps could then be decimated again.

In mid-August 1996, Nowak began the two-year basic training with the 43 other applicants (10 pilots, 25 mission specialists and 9 international candidates). After her basic training to become a mission specialist, she was employed in the mission planning department of the astronauts office. From 2000 she worked as a liaison officer .

In December 2002 Lisa Nowak was set up for a space shuttle flight for the first time : She was supposed to fly to the space station with Commander Scott Kelly, pilot Charles Hobaugh, as well as the mission specialists Dave Williams, Scott Parazynski and Barbara Morgan on board STS-118 in November 2003 . Since STS-118 was postponed indefinitely because of the Columbia crash in February 2003, NASA decided to withdraw Nowak from this crew and to recruit.

In November 2004 she was assigned to the crew of STS-121 . The mission was carried out in July 2006 after several postponements. The main tasks were to prove, on the one hand, that the improvements to the space shuttle started after STS-107 and STS-114 work, and on the other hand, to supply the ISS with goods and to reinforce its two-man crew with an astronaut. This means that three space travelers have been working on the station again since ISS expedition 6 . In addition, the shuttle crew carried out three spacecraft works before the flight came to an end after two weeks. Together with her colleague Stephanie Wilson , she was responsible for all work with the robot arms on this flight.

Lisa Nowak and her husband Richard have three children.

Arrest and career according to NASA

Nowak was in on 5 February 2007 Orlando ( Florida arrested). The allegation is attempted kidnapping and assault on USAF Captain Colleen Shipman. Nowak's motive was in the dark. According to police reports, it is believed that jealousy of the female officer may have played a role. Just like her, Shipman is said to have had a relationship with the astronaut William Oefelein . According to a NASA press release on February 6, 2007, Nowak was initially on leave for 30 days.

Nowak was charged with attempted kidnapping, armed theft and assault on March 2, 2007. The prosecutors refrained from being charged with attempted murder.

NASA announced on March 7, 2007 that it did not have the administrative resources to handle this case, since Nowak was not a civilian employee, but a naval officer. It was agreed with the US Navy to end Nowak's secondment to NASA by March 8, 2007. She will then take on her next assignment with the Navy. NASA stressed, however, that this decision does not constitute a testimony to the criminal proceedings pending against Nowak.

Nowak was sentenced to a one-year suspended prison sentence in 2009. After her discharge from the astronaut corps, she initially worked at the Naval Air Training station in Corpus Christi , Texas . In 2011, her non-honorable discharge from the Navy on September 1, 2011 was ordered. On July 28, 2011, State Secretary of the Navy Juan M. Garcia III announced that Nowak had moved from Captain to Commander a. D. was demoted.

See also

Web links

Commons : Lisa Nowak  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ↑ Orlando Sentinel: Space shuttle astronaut arrested at OIA on attempted kidnapping, battery charges ( Memento of February 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), February 5, 2007 (English)
  2. ↑ CNN: Astronaut to face attempted murder charge ( Memento from September 24, 2018 in the Internet Archive ), February 6, 2007 (English)
  3. ^ Spiegel Online: Liebestolle astronaut accused of attempted murder , February 6, 2007
  4. ↑ NASA: Statement Regarding the Status of Lisa Nowak , February 6, 2007 (English)
  5. ↑ Handelsblatt: US astronaut Nowak escapes murder trial , March 2, 2007
  6. ↑ NASA: Statement Regarding the Status of Lisa Nowak , March 7, 2007 (English)
  7. ↑ Love drama at NASA. Parole for diaper astronaut. N-TV, November 11, 2009, accessed March 25, 2012 .
  8. ^ Former NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak Expelled from Navy. Space.com, July 29, 2011, accessed March 25, 2012 .
  9. ↑ Navy drops former astronaut Nowak. CNN, July 29, 2011, archived from the original on December 11, 2018 ; accessed on March 25, 2012 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Nowak, Lisa
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nowak, Lisa Marie; Caputo, Lisa Marie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astronaut
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Washington, DC