By Chuck Hustmyre
February 7, 2007
ORLANDO, Fla. (Crime Library) —
"Houston, we have a problem."
In 1970, the problem facing NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston was how to get the troubled Apollo 13 spacecraft back to earth without the re-entry vehicle tearing itself apart.
Today, the problem is dealing with a troubled astronaut who appears to have cracked up on re-entry.
Space shuttle astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak appeared in an Orange County, Fla. courtroom late Tuesday afternoon and listened stoically as prosecutors added a charge of attempted first-degree murder to the list of violent felony charges filed against her on Monday. Those charges included attempted burglary of a vehicle, attempted kidnapping, battery, and destruction of evidence.
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| Lisa Marie Nowak |
Orange County Judge Mike Murphy set the 43-year-old Nowak's bond on the original charges at $15,500 at an earlier hearing Tuesday but added a second bond of $10,000 when prosecutors suddenly tacked on the attempted murder charge.
Nowak was freed Tuesday evening after posting the $25,500 bond.
Accompanied by two fellow astronauts who flew to Orlando from Houston, Nowak left the Orange County courthouse about 5:30 p.m. with a coat draped over her head in an attempt to hide her face from the phalanx of journalists who had rushed to Orlando from around the world to cover the bizarre story.
After fleeing the courthouse, Nowak went to the office of her bail bondsman and spent a couple of hours being fitted with a GPS tracking device that can monitor her location. Nowak, who lives near the Johnson Space Center in Houston, has been ordered to stay out of eastern Florida and away from her alleged victim, U.S. Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman, who lives near the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Nowak is expected to return to Houston today. According to NASA, she has been placed on leave.
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