Shuttle Astronaut arrested for attempted kidnapping !

She loves him, and he loves her, and she loves somebody else, you just cant win. And so it goes until the day you die, this thing you call love its gonna make you cry, Love stinks, yea yea, love stinks.

Lucky they didnt all fly on the same shuttle...Quality Control at NASA really sucks.

Well what can you say about her:
SHE's :

"Goal Oriented"
"A Real Go-Getter"
"Willing to Go that extra Mile" or twelve

Plus You know what they say:

"All is Fair In Love and War"

Originally posted by spacedoubt
I agree. They are people. And can certainly make mistakes.

this is good that we agree...

Originally posted by WyrdeOne
Since when have astronauts been faultless god-people without sin or vice?

that's what i was pondering...

Originally posted by 11Bravo
What strikes me most about this story is the fact that NASA should have an extensive battery of psychological tests in place to ensure that we have the most stable people in America being deployed into space.

How did she slip through? Are these tests not accurate?

Come on people...

I remember learning in psychology class that people tend to judge others more by who they are (ie: she's inherently evil) than by what circumstances they are placed in. Yet it's often the circumstances that effect us more. Ever wonder why so many molesters have a history of being molested themselves as children?

Therefore, maybe she wasn't mentally ill beforehand, maybe she didn't "slip through" the system... maybe, she was reacting to her circumstances. Sure we all act crazy sometimes, that doesn't mean we are.

We don't know her entire story, she obviously reacted in a horrible way. But who knows what led up to it.


As for the diapers, is it really necessary for the press to cover that? Her life and career are already on the line. Now people are more "ew diapers!" than "omg she could have seriously harmed that woman."

Just like that picture, she looks the same only 1) tired 2) in bad lighting at an unflattering angle 3) with a furrowed brow and sad expression.

could this be some kind of government attempt to discredit her from going public about UFOs on spaceflight missions? It kinda compromises all three people involved now.

More likely it is substance abuse problem and plain old jealousy, but just thought I would throw the above out there for the huge conspiracy theorists

This is an incredibly sad case, and I hope that she gets the help that she needs. This does damage to NASA's image, also, frankly, and they're probably going to have to kick her out and change their policies.

On a side note, wouldn't the fact that she was gung-ho about going up into the space shuttle, the Edsel of interstellar travel, indicative of mental instability?

Originally posted by Lilin
I remember learning in psychology class that people tend to judge others more by who they are (ie: she's inherently evil) than by what circumstances they are placed in. Yet it's often the circumstances that effect us more. Ever wonder why so many molesters have a history of being molested themselves as children?

Although, nine times out of ten, people put themselves into those circumstances. People know the differences between right and wrong and yet we let them make excuses for themselves. Oh, it was the drugs, the bad marriage, bad hair day, etc.

If we raise the bar for certain professions, we leave the bar. You do not keep raising and lowering it. Otherwise you get people who will let excuses become part of their character. Besides, she makes we females look bad

According to FOX, they're now going to charge her with attempted first-degree murder!

Originally posted by Lilin


As for the diapers, is it really necessary for the press to cover that? Her life and career are already on the line. Now people are more "ew diapers!" than "omg she could have seriously harmed that woman."

The diapers. I think they were mentioned because Astronauts wear them, during launch, and landing. They also provide a clue, that maybe she had a certain window of time, where she could have been gone from home, then back, and possibly not have been missed..Diapers would have made her trip a lot quicker.

The more I look at her booking photo..The more I am thinking Meth.
It's not just the lighting..She looks like she has been hurting for a while.

What a shame, having a look at her credentials, she has accomplished much more in a short time then the majority of us ever will muster in a lifetime. As an military officer and test pilot, I am sure she is quite familiar with firearms. A BB gun sounds like a rash scare tactic toward the victim, not someone who wished to use lethal force. Besides, if serious premeditation had occurred, I am sure that as a member of the astronaut corps, a more sinister sabotage would have been available. This looks to me like a heartbroken and shamed human being to me. Drugs??... even civil private pilots undergo drug and criminal behaviour screening before a medical certificate is issued. For an astronaut on flying status to be "methed out" is hogwash, and for sleeping her way to the STS, that's the kind of thing that practical testing and check rides are supposed to prevent, no one who is truly unqualified for the responsibility would be able to make it as a academy graduate, test pilot and astronaut.

She certainly had the right stuff, just a moment of weakness and circumstances that almost anyone could find themselves in. S**T Happens to good people, smart people and top notch people.

My hats off to her, what a bummer : (

I think it's all perfectly romantic! I wish I had a gal that would go out of her way for me like that! So she had pepper spray, a BB gun and a knife, I can think of plenty of things to do with all three that don't end in murder...

The diaper thing kinda skeezes me out, but I could proly get over it... AND I do have a shower at my home...

I hope that she gets the help she needs. She's a beautiful woman who trained hard to become something special and now she needs help. Now is not the time to kick her while she's down. Anybody who loses their focus in life could end up with an arrest picture like this or far worse. I know alot of you want her to recover and move forward and enjoy her life and career as anyone of us would for each other.

Originally posted by seenitall
She looks as though shes been using a lot of drugs, namely amphetamines.

I don't know about NASA, but the military does provide amphetamines to pilots for long flights. Maybe she got hooked on them.

[edit on 2/6/2007 by djohnsto77]

Bravo!!, carnival_of_souls2047

My feelings exactly!

I have known a few CFIs, and a disproportionately low number of them are young, attractive women. Whatever the prevailing view toward aeronautics is, it is still for the most part, a "boys club". Those women who make it to high positions of achievement did so by HARD A** BUSTING WORK and SKILL, visual aesthetics can actually work against them here. Each step must be fought for, and proven skill must be constantly demonstrated throughout the process. The level of achievement speaks volumes about the character underneath. Just because her hormones and / or heart got the best of her (off duty) judgement, please lets not trivialize the person that routinely does what most would not even dare to try.

Others have f**ed up while at the controls... submarine captains surface underneath merchant vessels in calm seas, veteran flight instructors fly a Cessna out of a VFR corridor into a 727 full of people in clear skies, other highly trained engineers deliberately override all safety mechanisms on a nuclear power plant and uncover the fuel. As I said before, the emotions could have easily moved directly into the training / work environment. What she did was silly, if she was out to kill the victim, this capable female would have accomplished her "mission" with the determination she has shown throughout her life to date. Yes, what she did was wrong, yes there is no room for this behavior in national mission critical environments, and yes she must be punished in a manner that fits the crime. However, after she has been rehabilitated and checked out, I for one would be happy to sit in the right seat of an aircraft with her as the PIC at anytime. : )

-Thanks for listening : )

[edit on 6-2-2007 by ivymike]

[edit on 6-2-2007 by ivymike]

Her credentials are practically flawless, but I think therein lies the problem. Realizing that she might lose out to some other person in romance probably put her in a position she had never been in. I don't think she "slipped through" anything. Some kinds of mania just can't be detected even with the best of psychological evaluation. Sometimes a psychological problem can't be discovered until a person is put into a particular position.

I have an incredible amount of respect for astronauts, and this entire news story seems completely surreal to me. I truly do hope she gets the help she needs.

Nasa will review and revamp their screening process...planning trips to mars that will take months...the consequences of someone losing it "out there" increase exponentially.

Harming another human being is not flippantly excused, but i wonder if this was a Male astronaut, who drove 900 miles to assault another man over a woman would play in the media...? at least a movie of the week...

I can agree with you that super achievers can and do fall from catrostophic heights when confronted with a highly desired goal that suddenly reveals itself as utterly unattainable. Sprinkle into that problem the unpredictable factors involved in human sexuality, and you had better strap in tight. Her actions do reveal that she is not above heeding the call of the dark side, certainly she knew right from wrong (as demonstrated by the marathon driving for an alibi)

Some folks have different thresholds for what they consider "sinful" (murder) and what could be considered just "revenge", such as scaring the living S**T out of a rival. Most agree that theft from a person is a serious offence and injury, but others consider it a lesser crime when the victim is the government... who some believe is stealing from you : )

Both ARE CRIMES, but a sampling of people will produce wide ranging beliefs. Crimes of passion seem to me to be quite subjective in the interpretation and in the application of justice. Hence the problem when you can't possibly gather all the facts and you can not dismiss the persuasiveness of extremely powerful emotions.

Moreover, I don't think, given the available information, that the her victim deserved this assault and publicity one iota. I suspect that some well deserved restitution will be forthcoming. You must admit that at some point in your lives, you gave someone exactly what they had coming to them. Wrong or right, it happens, among family, friends, coworkers and astronauts, sometimes mindless and evil and sometimes well deserved.

Without all the facts, that are impossible to obtain... I can not even speculate. But I also cannot accept that a person of her position can suddenly become a murdering, gun and knife wielding tweeker b**ch from hell overnight and without any reason. The failure may well be from undetected personality flaw or perhaps she really is a jealous, disturbed and obsessed freak, I would have thought that the personnel reliability programs would have discovered that sooner.

This story wreaks of hype and over inflation of actual intent and events.

As for not flippantly excusing harm to another, I agree completely. : )

She did the CRIME and MUST SUFFER the consequences. But what of the case of Buzz Aldrin? A U.S. Taxpayer posed a direct question (on many occasions and in several different formats, both technical, forensic and religious ) regarding the factual account of an Apollo program that cost America billions of dollars, what did he get as an answer?? A right jab to the face. Yes he is religious, and based his last question on his beliefs, but Aldrin is a public servant and an officer, and as such should be held to the same standards of misconduct as this astronaut has been. Scantly a mention in the press and always totally in favor of Aldrin.

I suggest that if she was in a position to spray pepper into a vehicle window at her victim, she could have just as easily emptied the BB gun directly into the face of her victim and that would pretty much end both of them as far as any revenge and spaceflight are concerned. Even more outrageous, she could have used the knife for the maximum personal effect. ( My in-car emergency kit contains a ultra sharp knife and latex gloves, does yours?? - However if it was a Rambo certified K-BAR she had, then opps, my bad, and I will respectfully retract this statement.... and eat some crow : ) Perhaps overblown or under reported, but certainly not equal standards for reporting bad conduct between the sexes.... and that's a shame.

Perhaps long duration human spaceflight should be sexually segregated, all male and all female crews, just like the restroom. Equal opportunity and pressure free, focusing on mission performance only. Not that pair bonds would not form even under those constraints, but it would at least attempt to keep the Mickey Mouse to a minimum.


[edit on 7-2-2007 by ivymike]

cont...

I can just feel the flames licking my evil sexist comments, but it is sometimes required to maintain professionalism in specific working environments.

There are many historical examples with abuse on BOTH sides of the fence... ( aka.. Apple Computers and the Tail Hook association ) When guys and girls get locked in a pressure cooker, what do you expect is going to happen??? It matters not if they are pilots or corporate executives, relationships are bound to form, this is healthy human nature at work, but sometimes they are unidirectional or worse... That's where performance suffers.

I understand that her last flight was in last july.

In that time span, she could have very well become hooked on meth. There are strong indications.

I have seen tweakers do bizarre things, and they are always in the news for their antics. That stuff turns brains into sawdust, and no one is above becoming hooked given the proper circumstances.

It would be a miscarriage of justice to convict for attempted murder without doing a through investigation. Blood tests, spinal taps, and other tests need to be done to find out if this is the case, then deal with the root of the problem if it is.

As for segregation as remarked by another poster, I know I would loose it if I had to look at some guy's ugly mug and metal walls for two years on a Mars voyage! I would demand a partner for a haul like that just to stay human. And that would require the programs currently in place.

Okay, I waited...and I waited...and I waited. And nobody has said it yet.

So I'll say it.

Nowak? Yes,WACK!



— Doc Velocity