.::GIUGNO 2007::.

If the name Lisa Marie [Caputo] Nowak is unfamiliar, maybe your newspaper subscription got lost in space. Bizarre, embarrassing, and relentless headlines about this astronaut have been widely published by every news outlet including People Magazine. Most Americans reacted in shock when the slim brunette was arrested in Orlando, Florida on February 5, 2007 and charged with attempted murder after a failed kidnapping of her young romantic rival. How did life spin out of control for the first Italian American woman to orbit into space, a robotics expert who proudly carried a National Organization of Italian American Women gold pin on her extra-terrestrial flight? Why did a brilliant aeronautical engineer drive herself into a stupid mess? Though it can be difficult to understand how a high-profile career comes undone, it's easier to outline the skinny on the scandal. Here’s the latest about this lust-in-space triangle. Forty-three-year-old Navy Captain Lisa ["Robochick"] Nowak, a married mother of three, had been having an affair with her co-worker at NASA, William ["Billy O"] Oefelein, a 41-year-old Navy commander who was recently divorced. Obsessed with Billy O for two years, Robochick was still hot-wired for her lover. However, in Billy O's mind, their mid-life romp was over when he got involved with a 30-year-old babe, Army Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman. Lisa Nowak realized who her replacement was via e-mail. In an electronic love note, Colleen Shipman had written to Billy O, "Will have to control myself when I see you. First, the urge will be to rip your clothes off, throw you on the ground, and love the hell out of you." Even by Othello standards, what Lisa Nowak's jealousy triggered was extraordinary. She put on diapers to avoid making restroom stops until she reached Florida. Though most adults merely pack clothing and fill their gas tank before a trip, this astronaut raced out of her Houston, Texas driveway with odd baggage. Recovered from her trunk by the Orlando Police Department were a BB gun [which resembled a handgun], an eight-inch Gerber folding knife, a drilling hammer, garbage bags, pepper spray, rubber gloves, bondage images, two hats, and a black curly wig Nowak wore to disguise herself before the kidnapping attempt. She also stowed a few badges and pins from STS 121, the shuttle mission she flew last summer. Then Lisa drove nonstop for over 900 miles to confront Colleen at the Orlando airport.

During that journey, did it occur to her how far she had fallen from her starting point? May 10, 1963 Lisa Marie was born in Maryland to Alfredo and Jane Caputo, the oldest of their three daughters. Roman Catholics, they were parishioners at St. Elizabeth Church in Rockville. In kindergarten, 5-year-old Lisa was enchanted by Neil Armstrong's 1969 moon walk. "That would be cool to do," she thought. While growing up, the A student followed the space shuttle program, particularly the introduction of women astronauts. Nearby was the Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC, which she often visited. She adored excitement: roller coasters, daring rides, sports, challenges, and being very good at whatever she attempted. In 1981, she graduated from a local high school. Four years later she earned a BS degree in aerospace engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy. Commissioned by the U.S. Navy in 1985, she soon became a naval flight officer. In 1988, she wed Richard T. Nowak, a classmate at both the Naval Academy and Navy flight school. Her husband works for mission control at the Johnson Space Center. Their son Alexander was born in February 1992. A few months later, this ambitious woman received an MS degree in aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. After being rejected six times due to her vision, she finally entered the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River with a 9-month-old baby in tow. Her mother asked, "How will you be able to do all this?" Lisa replied, "I'll find out as I go."
Then she logged over 1,500 hours of flight in 30 different aircraft during her career in the Navy, and obtained the rank of captain. Juggling this schedule and motherhood could not have been easy. To complicate matters, twin daughters Katrina and Alyssa were born in October 2001. Lisa Nowak was selected to be an astronaut in 1996 and entered the astronaut corps at the Johnson Space Center that year in August. She qualified as a mission specialist in robotics and went into space July 4, 2006 on the STS-121 mission which included a trip to the International Space Station. Serving as mission flight engineer, Lisa Nowak also operated the shuttle's robotic arm during several spacewalks and logged almost 13 days in space. On the ground, however, cracks were appearing in this perfectionist's "right stuff" facade. Though she boasted about being a team player, reports filed by crewmates criticized her "bad expedition behavior." Astronaut Mark Kelly told probers Lisa Nowak was "selfish" on the job, refusing to pitch in when needed in space. Newspapers disclosed another bombshell: NASA had failed to choose her for a key shuttle mission in December. The New York Post was gleefully malicious in its coverage: Noxious know-it-all astro-nut Lisa Nowak had been passed over for a prime shuttle mission just before wigging out on her romantic rival, court documents revealed yesterday. Nowak's co-workers told NASA investigators that they had suspected something steamy had been going on between the shapely, married, 43-year-old mother of three and ruggedly handsome shuttle pilot Bill "Billy-O" Oefelein for awhile... The proud and persnickety Nowak was visibly upset, her co-workers said. "Lisa was not happy," a co-worker told the probers. "[Astronaut Stephanie] Wilson was chosen for the position because she is a team player and well-deserving. Nowak was not." At home there was chaos. Though the Nowaks are still married, they separated in January 2007. Lisa Nowak's younger sister Andrea Rose told People Magazine that Nowak never quite recovered from losing three former classmates in the 2003 Columbia shuttle explosion. "We knew Lisa was under a lot of stress," said Rose, 41, a lawyer. "But there's no way of knowing how a particular person will react to stress. We love Lisa and we're worried about her well-being." Despite these setbacks, the only thing that seemed to matter to Lisa Nowak in February was losing her lover to an adversary. Shortly after her arrest, NASA terminated her. She's facing serious charges when her trial begins in September. Will she go to prison and forfeit the custody of her three children? Stay tuned.

IDEA GIUGNO 2007