Life is stranger than fiction - Astronaut Arrested

I saw this story on the news this morning before leaving for work. One would think that the mental capacity needed to achieve astronaut status would preclude one from sinking to the depths reached by this person. Really a strange story. :dunno::drama:
 
Sounds like she doesn't need the space shuttle to go into orbit!

Sure hope she gets things back together and it doesn't affect all the years of hard work she's put into getting where she is--in the astronaut program that is.

Best,

Dave
 
Just shows to go ya, people will be people. They may be astronauts but they are humans too.
 
smigaldi said:
Another first for America's space program ;)

Me wonders what happened to psychological screening?
Click to expand...


It's almost certian that some of the early astronauts did crazy illegal things that would have gotten them in major trouble (and in the tabloids) back in the day but were granted a lot of slack and protection due to their status.
 
wby0nder said:
It's almost certian that some of the early astronauts did crazy illegal things that would have gotten them in major trouble ...
Click to expand...

Yea, but there's difference between doing crazy things and just plain being crazy.
 
wby0nder said:
It's almost certian that some of the early astronauts did crazy illegal things that would have gotten them in major trouble (and in the tabloids) back in the day but were granted a lot of slack and protection due to their status.
Click to expand...

They did do a lot of crazy things. I worked at KSC in the 80's and the non-flight stories of the Apollo, Gemini, and Mercury guys were the stuff of legend. There is some of it documented in a few books. But the things they did mostly revolved around drunken debauches with willing participants and lost of fast cars. Not attempted kidnapping. But you are right the press protect those guys. Why shouldn't the press, it is what we wanted them to do. We needed real heroes at that time. The astronauts were those heroes and even if they had a few chinks in the marble no one wanted to hear about it.

This announcement today is just plain sad.
 
smigaldi said:
They did do a lot of crazy things. I worked at KSC in the 80's and the non-flight stories of the Apollo, Gemini, and Mercury guys were the stuff of legend. There is some of it documented in a few books. But the things they did mostly revolved around drunken debauches with willing participants and lost of fast cars. Not attempted kidnapping. But you are right the press protect those guys. Why shouldn't the press, it is what we wanted them to do. We needed real heroes at that time. The astronauts were those heroes and even if they had a few chinks in the marble no one wanted to hear about it.
Click to expand...
Lots of those stories were recounted in "The Right Stuff". The book, not the movie.

smigaldi said:
This announcement today is just plain sad.
Click to expand...

Indeed it is.
 
What a woman, she has that trip-long, "Astronaut Freshness" that only depends can give!
 
The charge has now been upped to Attempted First Degree Murder
A NASA astronaut charged with pepper-spraying and trying to kidnap a romantic rival was granted bail Tuesday, but her release was delayed after police announced they were filing an attempted murder charge against her, a corrections department spokesman said.
Click to expand...

Not good!
 
There are so many things wrong about this, I don't know where to start. Do they let just anyone be astronauts these days? A BB gun?

"We're here supporting [the accused, said her commander]. Our primary concern is her health and well-being as she gets through through this," said Lindsey [her commander, for God's sake!], who has known Nowak for 11 years. "We're a close family and we try to take care of our own."

As she "gets through" this?????

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news...feb05,0,6104316.story?coll=orl-home-headlines
 
AdamZ said:
Tonya Harding of the Space Age:dunno:
Click to expand...

That's the best line I've heard so far! Says it all.

Hard to understand. She's a Naval Academy graduate, does a tour in an Aggressor squadron -- not exactly a fast track assignment, but in the 80's women weren't allowed to fly in regular squadrons -- gets selected for Navy Test pilot school, then after that gets selected for Astronaut. Apparently is married with three kids. And then this?
 
This is one trial that will make some serious headlines. Nancy and Greta will be grabbing for straws for all the competitive details they can get.

And, who really gets hurt in all of this? The astronaut program. These are people looked up to from all ages. They accomplish what the rest of us only dream of. Then, there's the black mark made on the female astronaut role models whom young girls look up to with the belief there is a chance for them to achieve.

If this Lisa has any love for what she's been a part of and respect for her peers as well as those to follow, she will help put this to rest as soon as possible. But, that won't happen. She'll drag the entire program down with her during any effort in her defense.
 
KennyFlys said:
If this Lisa has any love for what she's been a part of and respect for her peers as well as those to follow, she will help put this to rest as soon as possible. But, that won't happen. She'll drag the entire program down with her during any effort in her defense.
Click to expand...

Wonder if she'll break out space station sex videos to prove that she had dibs on him? Can't wait for it to hit the internet... Another first for NASA...Space Porn....
 
Bill Jennings said:
How does that work anyway, in weightless environments? Newtons 1st and 3rd laws come to mind...:dunno:
Click to expand...

I could figure it out, velcro on your feet, knees and elbows comes to mind, although in free float, a good grip on your partner would work. I can't see it much different than underwater on SCUBA, only you don't have the bulky apparatus or regs in your mouth, so you would have extra options.
 
NASA has a very strict no-sex-in-space rule, and required the first married couple to go up together to sign legal documents promising not to engage in marital relations in orbit as a condition of being given the ride, with penalties including termination of employment if violated. I doubt this has changed, and it is certain that nobody could engage in such acts without the folks on the ground knowing (the biomed folks even knew when Shepherd peed in his space suit in 1961 after a long launch delay).

As for the individual involved, all I can say for sure is that she is through in the astronaut business, and the only question left for this aviation forum is whether the FAA will yank her medical, too (either a personality disorder manifested by overt acts or grossly bizarre/disorganized behavior -- 14 CFR 67.307(a)).
 
Ron Levy said:
NASA has a very strict no-sex-in-space rule...
Click to expand...

I doubt the Russians monitor their cosmonauts quite so closely, though. They seem to play things pretty fast and loose (no pun intended).

Chris
 
.... must be another challenge for Cutler, Grattonja, and Zucker collaboration to fly in and tie this one down.
 
Ron Levy said:
NASA has a very strict no-sex-in-space rule, and required the first married couple to go up together to sign legal documents promising not to engage in marital relations in orbit as a condition of being given the ride, with penalties including termination of employment if violated.
Click to expand...
I didn't know they did that. Do they make unmarried coed crew sign the same no-sex agreement?

Ron Levy said:
I doubt this has changed, and it is certain that nobody could engage in such acts without the folks on the ground knowing (the biomed folks even knew when Shepherd peed in his space suit in 1961 after a long launch delay).
Click to expand...
That's true, but we knew virtually nothing about physiological reactions to weightlessness in 1961. Do they still wire up the astronauts today to the extent they did then? :dunno:

Ron Levy said:
As for the individual involved, all I can say for sure is that she is through in the astronaut business, and the only question left for this aviation forum is whether the FAA will yank her medical, too (either a personality disorder manifested by overt acts or grossly bizarre/disorganized behavior -- 14 CFR 67.307(a)).
Click to expand...
I would hope that the FAA does something to keep her out of the air until such time as she is deemed well enough to fly again.
 
Ron Levy said:
I doubt this has changed, and it is certain that nobody could engage in such acts without the folks on the ground knowing (the biomed folks even knew when Shepherd peed in his space suit in 1961 after a long launch delay).
Click to expand...

Ron,

A few things have changed since 1961. Do you really think they're on the wires 100% of the time, or even any of the time? I don't think so, though I have asked for confirmation from my NASA-engineer sister. I'm sure it'd be possible to get away with it without the folks on the ground knowing, but the rest of the crew would sure as heck know!
 
Imagine the first child conceived or born in space...

It will happen. It's just a matter of time

Stay tuned.

MM
 
Here's the skinny on in-flight biomedical monitoring of astronauts:

No constant monitoring during the orbital portion of the flight except if there's a specific experiment as part of the flight. They often wear a watch called an Acti-Light watch that measures something about their wake/sleep cycles and general activity throughout the day. It's an experiment - they wear it for periods on the ground as well and the scientists compare their ground activity to their on-orbit activity with the help of a journal the crew keeps, but I don't know much about the objectives of the study. I don't know what they get during launch & entry, but I'm not aware of real-time monitoring. They do wear a biomed sensor during EVAs that measures heart rate. I don't know if it measures anything else. We measure their metabolic rate by how quickly they use the oxygen in the suit - only the flight surgeons can see their heart rate. There is no monitoring during NBL training.
Click to expand...

Interesting.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top