The ex-wife of a NASA astronaut pleaded guilty to fabricating the first crime in space when she admitted to lying about her spouse stealing her identity while aboard the International Space Station.
Federal prosecutors in Texas said Summer Worden, a 50-year-old former Air Force intelligence officer, confessed to making up her original accusation that her wife illegally accessed her bank account amid the couple’s bitter divorce and custody battle.
The defendant was preparing to go to trial before pleading guilty last week to making false statements to federal agents. She faces up to five years in prison when she is sentenced in February.
Worden claimed in March 2019 that her then-estranged wife, Anne McClain, a U.S. Army colonel and NASA astronaut, correctly guessed the password for her bank account during a six-month mission on the ISS.
Worden reported her spouse’s alleged actions to NASA’s Office of Inspector General and the Federal Trade Commission. The accusations sparked global intrigue since it was the first time someone was linked to a crime outside of Earth’s atmosphere.
Ms. McClain, who was on the ISS preparing for what was anticipated to be NASA’s first all-female spacewalk, consistently denied any wrongdoing. Her lawyer said in 2019 that she was just checking the couple’s joint financial accounts and communicated that with Worden.
“Summer and I have been going through a painful and personal separation that is now unfortunately playing out in the media. I appreciate all the outpouring of support, and I will reserve any further comment until after the investigation concludes,” Ms. McClain said in August 2019.
Federal investigators found that Worden had given her wife access to the accounts since 2015 and the two shared login credentials until they separated in early 2019.
Prosecutors charged Worden in 2020 after accusing her of lying about when she opened her personal bank account and when she changed her passwords.
The fake criminal accusations against Ms. McClain, then the indictment against Worden, came during the couple’s custody battle for their 6-year-old son.
The pair wed in 2014, but four years later Ms. McClain accused Worden of assault.
Worden denied the accusation, and the case was eventually dismissed, but she officially filed for divorce in 2018.
The divorce was finalized in January 2020, a few months before Worden was criminally charged.
Ms. McClain, a West Point graduate who was deployed during the Iraq War, has continued her career with NASA since the phony claim scandal.
Earlier this year, she was the commander of the SpaceX Crew-10 mission to the ISS from March to August.
