spacetoday.net: NASA dismisses Nowak from astronaut corps

Posted: Thu, Mar 8, 2007, 7:31 AM ET (1231 GMT)
Nowak, Lisa (NASA)

Lisa Nowak, the woman accused of attempted kidnapping of a romantic rival last month, has been officially removed from the NASA astronaut corps and returned to the Navy. NASA announced Wednesday that, under mutual agreement with the Navy, it had terminated Nowak's detail to the space agency as an astronaut, effective Thursday. In a statement, agency officials said that because Nowak was not a civil servant, they lacked "the administrative means to deal appropriately with the criminal charges" that Nowak faces. She had been on a 30-day leave since shortly after her arrest on February 5; that leave was set to end on Thursday. Nowak, a captain in the US Navy, will report for duty later this month to an administrative position at a naval aviation center in Corpus Christi, Texas. Nowak is facing attempted kidnapping and other charges stemming from a confrontation with another woman at an airport parking lot in Orlando. The dismissal is the first time in NASA history that an astronaut had been publicly fired.