The best idea ever (1 Viewer)

[Pantone247]

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ha ha ha ha, someone one posted one in the end... a happy ending.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

i didnt know astronauts had to wear nappies for take off and landing. this information demystifies the whole business somewhat.

HEADLINE: High flier who circled the globe brought crashing down to ground by a thing called love

BYLINE: Ed Pilkington in New York

BODY:


US: It took Lisa Nowak 12 days, 18 hours, 37 minutes and 54 seconds, travelling a distance of 8.5 million kilometres, to secure her place last July in one of the world's most elite clubs: voyagers to space. On Monday last it took her about 14 hours, and a journey of just 1,529km to destroy it.

Mrs Nowak was last night being held at Orlando county jail in Florida, facing a possible charge of attempted murder in the most bizarre major criminal incident involving any of Nasa's active-duty astronauts. The charge, together with others of attempted kidnapping and battery, relate to an apparent love triangle she was embroiled in with a fellow male astronaut and a woman air force captain whom she suspected of being a rival for his affections.

To say the group to which Mrs Nowak belongs is select is an understatement: she is one of only 97 astronauts currently trained and ready to fly, 20 of them women. Nasa has selected a total of just 321 astronauts since the US agency began preparing to go into space in 1959. All of which makes her behaviour in the early hours of Monday so baffling.

The married mother of three, who had been subjected to Nasa's rigorous screening process and trained for 10 years to cope with extreme stress before her flight in the Discovery space shuttle, embarked on her own private mission.

Mrs Nowak told police she set out on her drive from Houston, Texas, to Orlando on Sunday, carrying with her a carbon-dioxide- powered pellet gun, a folding knife with a 10cm blade, pepper spray, a steel mallet and $600 in cash. She also had several large black garbage bags, six latex gloves and rubber tubing, as well as a wig and two hooded trenchcoats. Most peculiarly, she wore a nappy on the journey to reduce the need for stops - an in-house trick: astronauts wear nappies during takeoff and landing.

The police affidavit states that she had discovered that Colleen Shipman, a US air force captain, was flying in from Houston to Orlando that night. Mrs Nowak wanted to be there to "scare her", she later told police, into talking about her relationship with the man at the centre of the love triangle.

He is Bill Oefelein (41) from Alaska, who underwent astronaut training with Mrs Nowak and like her went into space for the first time last year, also on Discovery, although they have never flown together. Evidence of Mrs Nowak's feelings for Mr Oefelein were found in a letter in her car, together with e-mails between him and Ms Shipman and directions to Ms Shipman's house.

In her statement to police, Mrs Nowak said she had "more than a working relationship, but less than a romantic relationship" with him. Ms Shipman saw Mrs Nowak, whom she had never met before, wearing a hooded trenchcoat, dark glasses and the wig, following her on a bus from airport lounge to car park. She grew afraid. As she hurried to her car, she could hear footsteps behind her and as she slammed the door Mrs Nowak slapped the window and tried to open the door.

"Can you help me, please? My boyfriend was supposed to pick me up and he is not here," Mrs Nowak pleaded. When Ms Shipman said she could not help, the astronaut started to cry. Ms Shipman wound down her window a few centimetres, at which point Mrs Nowak let off the pepper spray. Ms Shipman drove off, her eyes burning, and raised the alarm at the exit booth.

Mrs Nowak's behaviour has amazed people in the rarefied world of space exploration. Tariq Malik, who covers shuttle missions for the website space.com and who interviewed Mrs Nowak shortly before she went into space, said astronauts were carefully chosen and trained so that surprises did not happen. "They go through deep medical and psychological screening. They have to fly in very cramped spaces and under intense stress so they have to be able to cope."

Her official photograph taken before the flight shows her in full astronaut's suit, smiling broadly in front of the stars and stripes. Yesterday a different picture was running on TV screens: Mrs Nowak as she was booked into jail, her forehead creased, eyes pinched, shoulders hunched and hair askew.

- (Guardian service)