1. Lisa Marie Nowak is an American aeronautical engineer, former NASA astronaut, and retired United States Navy officer.
61 Facts About Lisa Nowak
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In 2007, Lisa Nowak was involved in a highly publicized incident of criminal misconduct for which she eventually pleaded guilty to felony burglary and misdemeanor battery charges, resulting in her demotion from captain to commander, and termination by NASA and the Navy.
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Lisa Nowak was assigned to VAQ-34 at Naval Air Station Point Mugu, California, where she flew the EA-7L Corsair and ERA-3B Skywarrior.
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Lisa Nowak earned a Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering and a degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.
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In February 2007, Lisa Nowak was arrested in Orlando, Florida, after she accosted and pepper-sprayed Colleen Shipman, a US Air Force captain romantically involved with astronaut William Oefelein, who had been in a relationship with Lisa Nowak.
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Lisa Nowak was released on bail and initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, which included attempted kidnapping, burglary with assault, and battery.
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In 2009, Lisa Nowak agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to charges of felony burglary of a car and misdemeanor battery.
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Lisa Nowak remained a Navy captain until the following year when a Naval Board of Inquiry voted unanimously to reduce her in rank to commander and to dismiss her from the Navy under other than honorable conditions after 25 years of service.
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Lisa Nowak was a Girl Scout, and a member of the Societe Honoraire de Francais, which required students to maintain an A average in French and a B average in all other subjects.
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Lisa Nowak competed on the math team and served on her class student council.
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Lisa Nowak played field hockey and competed in track and field athletics.
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Lisa Nowak's parents thought Brown was the best choice, but Caputo felt that she had more chance of achieving her goal of becoming an astronaut by going to the Naval Academy.
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Lisa Nowak graduated on May 22,1985, with a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering, and was commissioned as an ensign in the United States Navy.
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Lisa Nowak then went to the Naval Air Station Lemoore, where she qualified to operate the electronic systems on the LTV EA-7L Corsair II.
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In 1990, Lisa Nowak entered the US Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, where she earned both a Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering and a degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering in September 1992, writing a thesis on Computational Investigations of a NACA 0012 Airfoil in Low Reynolds Number Flows.
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Lisa Nowak was selected to attend the United States Naval Test Pilot School at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, after she applied six times.
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Lisa Nowak graduated in June 1994, and then became an aircraft systems project officer at the Air Combat Environment Test and Evaluation Facility and at Strike Aircraft Test Squadron at Patuxent River.
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NASA received over 2,400 applications, and in early 1996, Lisa Nowak was informed that she was one of 150 finalists deemed highly qualified, and she was asked to report to Johnson Space Center for a week of orientation, interviews and medical evaluations.
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On May 1,1996, NASA publicly announced the names of 10 pilot and 25 mission specialist candidates; Lisa Nowak was one of the latter.
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Lisa Nowak found a job as a space communications contractor with Barrios Technology, an aerospace company, and worked at the Johnson Space Center as a flight controller at the mission control center.
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At the Astronaut Office, Lisa Nowak specialized in the operation of the Space Shuttle's robotic arm.
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Lisa Nowak served with the CAPCOM Branch, the astronauts that worked with the mission control center as the primary communicators with the spacecraft.
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Lisa Nowak went through everything: Navy paperwork, finances, bills, bank accounts.
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Lisa Nowak took care of [Clark's son] Iain during the months afterward.
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Lisa Nowak saw what it was like to lose one of her best friends and for Iain to lose a mother.
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Lisa Nowak has two very young children and she is here twelve to fourteen hours a day under the most difficult circumstances.
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In January 2004, Lisa Nowak participated in an eleven-day cold weather survival training course in Canada with fellow NASA astronauts Dominic Antonelli and William Oefelein, Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang, Russian cosmonaut Dmitri Kondratyev, and Canadian astronaut Julie Payette.
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Lisa Nowak had worked together with Oefelein, who had been selected as an astronaut with the class of 1998, when they were both stationed at Patuxent River in 1995.
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Lisa Nowak left personal effects there, and she soon became a familiar sight to other residents of the complex.
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Lisa Nowak was the last crew member to enter the spacecraft, taking her seat as the flight engineer on the flight deck immediately behind Lindsey and Kelly.
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Lisa Nowak deployed the robotic arm to inspect the wing tips, nose and underside of the spacecraft using digital and video cameras and laser scanning.
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Lisa Nowak carried out her assigned tasks, but other crew members noted a reluctance to assist with tasks that were not assigned to her and for which she had not trained.
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On September 9, Lisa Nowak attended a tailgate party at the Naval Academy versus University of Massachusetts football game, where she gave her classmates the Class of 1985 flag she had carried on the Space Shuttle and signed photographs of herself.
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Lisa Nowak gave a long interview with the Ladies' Home Journal for its Mother's Day issue and presented awards at NASA's Stennis Space Center.
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Lisa Nowak went back to Luxmanor Elementary School and Tilden Middle School where she spoke to the children and attended celebrations at Annapolis for the 30th anniversary of its admission of women, during which she gave a presentation as part of the academy's Forrestal Lecture Series.
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Lisa Nowak's marriage failed, and she separated from Richard in January 2007.
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Lisa Nowak thought Nowak took it well, and that they could remain friends.
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On February 4,2007, Lisa Nowak packed latex gloves, a black wig, a BB pistol and ammunition, pepper spray, a hooded tan trench coat, a drilling hammer, black gloves, an 8-inch Gerber folding knife and other items.
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Lisa Nowak then drove her husband's car 900 miles from Houston to Orlando, Florida, to confront Shipman.
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On February 5,2007, Lisa Nowak went to the Orlando International Airport and waited for about half an hour for Shipman's plane to touch down at 01:05.
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Lisa Nowak slapped the window and tried to open the car door, asked for a ride, then started crying.
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Shipman rolled down the window a couple of inches after which Lisa Nowak sprayed the pepper spray into the car.
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Several Orlando Police Department Airport Division officers arrived minutes later with the first officer observing Lisa Nowak throwing a bag into the trash at a parking shuttle bus stop.
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Lisa Nowak was arrested at Orlando International Airport on charges of attempted kidnapping, battery, attempted vehicle burglary with battery, and destruction of evidence.
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Lisa Nowak claimed that Nowak had been stalking her for two months.
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Lisa Nowak told investigators she was involved in a relationship with Oefelein, which she described as being "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship".
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Lisa Nowak's lawyer alleged that police and prosecutors, unhappy that Nowak had been granted bail, pressed more serious charges solely to keep her in jail.
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On February 6,2007, Lisa Nowak was placed on 30-day leave by NASA.
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On May 11,2007, authorities released a surveillance video from the Orlando International Airport terminal showing Lisa Nowak waiting for nearly an hour, standing near the baggage claim, then donning a trench coat and following Shipman after she retrieved her bags.
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On February 6,2007, Lisa Nowak pleaded not guilty to the charges of attempted murder and attempted kidnapping.
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Lisa Nowak was ordered to wear an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet as a condition of her release.
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Lisa Nowak's attorney withdrew a previous motion filed in 2007, which would have left open the opportunity to use an insanity defense in the case.
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On November 10,2009, Lisa Nowak entered a guilty plea to felony burglary and misdemeanor battery as part of a plea deal.
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Lisa Nowak was sentenced to a year's probation and the two days already served in jail, with no additional jail time.
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In March 2011, Lisa Nowak petitioned the court to seal the record of her criminal proceedings, citing harm to her family and their livelihood.
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Naval officials waited for Lisa Nowak's kidnapping case to be resolved before taking further action against her.
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Lisa Nowak remained on active duty with the Navy and was ordered to work on the staff of the Chief of Naval Air Training at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas.
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Lisa Nowak received the NASA Space Flight Medal on August 22,2006, and on June 5,2007.
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Lisa Nowak retired from the Navy with an other than honorable discharge and the rank of commander on September 1,2011.
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In 2017, People magazine reported that Lisa Nowak was living quietly in Texas, where she was working in the private sector.
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Lisa Nowak was the subject of a play, Starcrosser's Cut, which opened in Los Angeles in June 2013.