Ep19 – INFAMOUS:  The Astronaut Love Triangle – Lisa Nowak’s Diaper Assault

This is the case of the astronaut love triangle, but it is better known for the infamous diaper assault.  Did Lisa Nowak wear diapers to keep from making stops during her road trip from Texas to Florida?

In 2006, life was looking great for NASA Astronaut and Naval Captain Lisa Nowak.  She had literally been to space on the Shuttle Discovery for 13 days.  Young girls and boys everywhere looked up to this fierce woman who appeared to have it all.  But in February 2007, Lisa would throw all her hard work away over a man.

On February 5, 2007, Lisa stalked Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman through the Orlando International Airport.  After Colleen’s bags failed to arrive, Lisa waited and waited and waited – for two hours, until Colleen got the situation figured out.  Then at around 3am, Lisa followed Colleen on a bus that took passengers to their remote parking locations and chased Colleen to her car.  This insane behavior was followed by Lisa telling Colleen that she needed help.  And Colleen, the kind person, thought maybe should would stay to help.  Colleen opened her window just a crack and it was there that Lisa sprayed Colleen with pepper spray.  Colleen got away, thinking she had just escaped a car jacking.  But it wasn’t that simple.  Colleen may have escaped an elaborate plan to kill her.

Colleen and William Oeflein “Billy O,” a NASA Astronaut and Naval Commander, started dating back in November 2006.  Before Colleen though, Bill and Lisa had a complicated dating relationship for nearly 2 years, even though Lisa was married to a different man.  Bill called it quits with Lisa and thought that Lisa had taken it reasonably well, but it turned out, she did not.

After Bill returned from space in early 2007, Lisa discovered Bill was dating Colleen.  Lisa then decided to intercept Colleen at the airport, after driving 14 hours and close to 900 miles to allegedly just “chat.”  But her actions at the airport (which were caught on surveillance video) and the items in her “kill bag” and in her car, tell a different story.   Lisa’s BMW contained a map to Colleen’s house, printed emails between Colleen and Bill, large garbage bags, latex gloves, and used diapers.  In Lisa’s “kill bag,” detectives found a steel mallet, a buck knife, a BB gun (resembling a 9 MM handgun), and 6 feet of rubber tubing.

This infamous case recently resurfaced in pop culture:  Check out the movie “Rough Night” and its reference to a “sad astronaut” and the 2019 movie, “Lucy in the Sky.”

Listen to Episode 19, as I navigate through all of the media frenzy and the legal proceedings in this infamous case.

Lisa Nowak before her flight on Shuttle Discovery in July 2006
Image found here.

Lisa Nowak & William “Billy O” Oeflein
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Lisa Nowak – NASA/Mugshot
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William Oeflein & Colleen Shipman
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Colleen Shipman Speaks Out
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Episode 19 – Resources:

• Lisa Nowak Biographical Data, NASA Website, https://web.archive.org/web/20050817035733/http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/nowak.html (last accessed on 23 Feb 20).
• Kluger, Jeffrey, Time Magazine, “Houston, She’s Got Some Problems,” February 8, 2007, http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1587281-1,00.html (last accessed on 23 Feb 20).
• Hylton, Hilary, Time Magazine, “Why Astronauts Don’t Like Shrinks,” February 8, 2007, http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1587495,00.html (last accessed on 23 Feb 20).
• Cobb, Kim & Carreau, Mark, Houston Chronical, “Astronaut Won’t Face Attempted Murder Charge,” March 3, 2007, https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Astronaut-won-t-face-attempted-murder-charge-1843415.php (last accessed on 23 Feb 20).
• NASA, “Statement Regarding the Status of Lisa Nowak,” March 7, 2007, https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/mar/HQ_07026_Nowak_Status.html (last accessed on 23 Feb 20).
• ABC News, “Explicit E-mail Exchange May Have Provoked Astronaut Lisa Nowak’s Breakdown,” March 7, 2007, https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=2928533&page=1 (last accessed on 23 Feb 20).
• C. Gwynne, Texas Monthly, “Lust in Space,” May 7, 20-7 (reprinted in July 2019, celebrating Texas’s role in 50 years of space exploration), https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/lust-in-space/ (last accessed on 29 Feb 20).
• Madkour, Rasha, NBC News, “NASA Reassigns Pilot in Astronaut Love Triangle,” May 25, 2007, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/18871486/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/nasa-reassigns-pilot-astronaut-love-triangle/#.XlcYEEpOmUl (last accessed on 26 Feb 20).
• Sunseri, Gina, ABC News, “Will Nowak Space Rage Case Be Tried?” November 5, 2007, https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3822665&page=1 (last accessed on 23 Feb 20).
• Schwartz, John, New York Times, “Former Astronaut Makes Plea Deal,” November 10, 2009, https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/us/11astronaut.html (last accessed on 26 Feb 20).
• Florida Today, Space.com, “Former Astronaut Lisa Nowak’s Navy Career is Over,” August 20, 2010, https://www.space.com/8990-astronaut-lisa-nowak-navy-career.html (last accessed on 23 Feb 20).
• Strauss, Eric, ABC News, “Did Astronaut Lisa Nowak, Love Triangle Attacker, Wear Diaper?” February 16, 2011, https://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/astronaut-love-triangle-attacker-lisa-nowak-wear-diaper/story?id=12932069 (last accessed on 23 Feb 20).
• Schneider, Mike, NBC News, “Navy Kicks Out Ex-Astronaut, Years After Scandal,” July 29, 2011, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/43944919/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/navy-kicks-out-ex-astronaut-years-after-scandal/#.XlMlvkpOmUk (last accessed on 23 Feb 20).
• com, “Ex-Astronaut From Love Triangle Case Survives Plane Crash,” October 10, 2011, https://www.space.com/13239-nasa-astronaut-survives-plane-crash.html (last accessed on 23 Feb 20).
• Curtis, Henry, Orlando Sentinel, “Lisa Nowak: Records Sealed in NASA Astronaut’s Love-Triangle Arrest,” January 18, 2012, https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-2012-01-18-os-lisa-nowak-love-triangle-sealed-20120118-story.html (last accessed on 23 Feb 20).
• Truesdell, Jeff, People.com, “Astronaut Love Triangle: Colleen Shipman Says of Her Husband: ‘They Were Making Him Out to be Something Horrible,’” March 25, 2016, https://people.com/crime/astronaut-love-triangle-victim-colleen-shipman-defends-husband-bill-oefelein/ (last accessed on 23 Feb 20).
• Beck, Lisa, Bustle.com, “Where’s Lisa Nowak in 2019? The Disgraced Former Astronaut Keeps To Herself,” October 2, 2019, https://www.bustle.com/p/wheres-lisa-nowak-in-2019-the-disgraced-former-astronaut-keeps-to-herself-18800036 (last accessed on 23 Feb 20).
• Helling, Steve, People Magazine, “Astronaut Love Triangle: Lisa Nowak’s Life 10 Years Later,” October 24, 2017, https://people.com/crime/astronaut-love-triangle-lisa-nowak-life-10-years-later/ (last accessed on 23 Feb 20).
• Martinez, Gina, Time.com, “The True Story Behind Lucy in the Sky – the One Key Detail the Movie Leaves Out,” October 3, 2019, https://time.com/5685017/lucy-in-the-sky-true-story-lisa-nowak/ (last accessed on 23 Feb 20).
• Thomas, Leah, Cosmopolitan, “Where is Lisa Nowak, the Real Woman Behind ‘Lucy in the Sky,’ Now?” October 7, 2019, https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/movies/a29370149/lisa-nowak-now-today-lucy-in-the-sky/ (last accessed on 23 Feb 20).
• Sad Astronaut on Urban Dictionary, https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sad%20astronaut

Videos:

• Shipman Recounts Nowak Attack In Court, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA2Ha7xuJSE&t=5s
• Lisa Nowak Apologizes to Victim, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TGDnsAU4RQ
• Nowak Case: A Look At What Happened At Airport, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmv-R8KJ5mM

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