Astronaut charged with attempted kidnapping not attempted murder

Astronaut charged with attempted kidnapping not attempted murder
Fri Mar 2, 2007 1:42PM EST

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak, who
stunned colleagues by driving from Houston to Orlando in diapers
to confront a woman she thought was a love rival, was charged
with attempted kidnapping but not with attempted murder,
prosecutors said on Friday.

The former space shuttle crew member also was formally charged
on Friday with battery and car burglary with assault after
trying to pepper spray the woman she thought was competing with
her for the attention of another astronaut, said prosecutors in
Orlando.

Shortly after Nowak was arrested on February 6, prosecutors said
she was trying to kill U.S. Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman, who
she believed was a rival for the attention of astronaut Bill
Oefelein.

But the attempted first-degree murder charge, which carried a
maximum sentence of life imprisonment, was dropped without
explanation and prosecutors declined to comment.

Nowak, who has three children and recently separated from her
husband, was released on bail shortly after her arrest and
allowed to return to her home in Houston.

Police said Nowak, a flight engineer who made her first trip
into space in July to the International Space Station aboard
shuttle Discovery, sped the 950 miles from Houston to Orlando
wearing diapers so she would not have to stop at a bathroom.