By Chuck Hustmyre
February 8, 2007
HOUSTON, Texas (Crime Library) — If Lisa Nowak hadn't flown so high, her plunge back to earth would have likely gone nearly unnoticed. That she is who she is—a Naval Academy graduate, an officer just one rank below admiral, a fighter pilot, an aeronautical engineer, a test pilot, an astronaut—was the reason the world took notice Monday when police in Orlando announced her shocking arrest.
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| Lisa Marie Nowak |
Her alleged crimes—attempted kidnapping, attempted vehicle burglary, battery, destruction of evidence, and attempted murder—would have made the middle pages of the Orlando-area newspapers and maybe earned her a 30-second spot on local television news broadcasts, but Lisa Nowak garnered worldwide attention this week not because of what she'd done but because of who she is—or perhaps who she was. Because unless she made very important friends while hurtling through the heavens last summer, Nowak's minutes-long encounter with Colleen Shipman in a dark parking lot early Monday morning at the Orlando International Airport will forever eclipse her lifetime of courage, sacrifice, and accomplishment.
Reaching for the Stars
When Lisa Nowak (then Lisa Caputo) was 6 years old, she saw Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon. She was hooked on space.
Nowak was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in two-story brick home in nearby Rockville, Md. She is the daughter of Alfredo and Jane Caputo and has two sisters, Andrea and Marisi. She went to Luxmanor Elementary School—where as an astronaut she spoke last year—and later attended Charles W. Woodward High School. She ran track and graduated co-valedictorian in 1981.
Later that year, she entered the United States Naval Academy, where she majored in aerospace engineering and again competed in track.
While at the Naval Academy she met her future husband, Richard Nowak. She graduated from the Naval Academy in 1985 and spent six months on temporary duty at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Nowak then began flight training. She got her wings in 1987 and married Richard the next year. In 1992, Nowak earned a master's degree in aeronautical engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School and gave birth to a son.
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Astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak Charged With Attempted Murder
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