NASA astronaut's estranged wife pleads guilty to falsely alleging first crime committed in space

The estranged woman of a NASA astronaut pleaded blameworthy to lying to instrumentality enforcement implicit what was alleged to beryllium the archetypal transgression to beryllium committed successful space. 

Summer Worden present faces up to 5 years successful national situation and a imaginable $250,000 maximum good successful narration to the mendacious reports she made astir Anne McClain, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas. 

"In July 2019, Summer Heather Worden alleged her estranged spouse had guessed the password and illegally accessed her slope relationship portion the spouse was deployed to the International Space Station," the bureau said. 

"However, Worden had really opened the relationship successful April 2018. Both parties had accessed it until January 2019 erstwhile Worden changed the credentials," it added. "The probe revealed Worden had granted her spouse entree to her slope records from astatine least 2015, including her login credentials."

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NASA astronaut Anne McClain is helped retired of the SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft onboard the SpaceX betterment vessel SHANNON aft she, NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov landed successful the Pacific Ocean connected Aug. 9, 2025, disconnected the seashore of San Diego, California.  (Keegan Barber/NASA via Getty Images)

The archetypal assertion made by Worden – which was the archetypal allegation of a transgression successful abstraction – generated inquiries from the Federal Trade Commission and NASA’s Inspector General, the New York Times reported. 

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Crew-10 ngo commandant and NASA astronaut Anne McClain smiles for a photograph earlier heading to the motorboat pad astatine the Kennedy Space Center successful Florida connected March 14, 2025.  (Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Images)

The paper described Worden arsenic a decorated quality serviceman successful the Air Force. It added that McClain, a West Point postgraduate and Iraq War seasoned who joined NASA successful 2013, returned to the International Space Station successful March arsenic commandant of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission.

Worden and McClain divorced successful January 2020, according to KSDK. 

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft launches from the Launch Complex 39A astatine NASA’s Kennedy Space Center connected March 14, 2025, successful Cape Canaveral, Florida.  (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

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Prosecutors said a justice volition condemnation Worden connected Feb. 12, 2026, and that she is allowed to stay connected enslaved pending that hearing.