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Mon 5 Feb, 2007 09:29 pm
ORLANDO, Fla. - An astronaut drove from Houston to Florida, donned a disguise and confronted a woman she believed was romantically involved with a space shuttle pilot she was in love with, police said. She was charged with attempted kidnapping and other counts.
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U.S. Navy Capt. Lisa Nowak, 43, who flew last July on a shuttle mission to the international space station, was also charged with attempted vehicle burglary with battery, destruction of evidence and battery. She was denied bail.
Police said Nowak drove from her home in Houston to the Orlando International Airport ?- wearing diapers so she wouldn't have to stop to urinate ?- to confront Colleen Shipman.
Nowak believed Shipman was romantically involved with Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein, a pilot during space shuttle Discovery's trip to the space station last December, police said.
Nowak told police that her relationship with Oefelein was "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship," according to an arrest affidavit. Police officers recovered a love letter to Oefelein in her car.
This story serves to illustrate why I think all astronauts ought to be deported.
It's "piddle pack", not diaper.
Gee, stuff gets intense on occasion. And sometimes one is all by oneself on it.
Let me tell you about my dream...
Only half kidding, as this very morning I woke up annoyed at my own point of view on something. I was still annoyed and remembered whatever it was about ten minutes later... rather unusual. But then it effervesced.
OK, this woman might not be so well. Sometimes I'm sorry for the giant spotlight on everything.
NASA diapers become topic No. 1
By Roy Rivenburg, Times Staff Writer
7:44 PM PST, February 9, 2007
It's the diaper that boldly goes where no incontinence product has gone before.
The sordid saga of a love-struck, diaper-clad astronaut has transformed a somewhat obscure NASA undergarment into a cultural phenomenon.
Comedians and bloggers can't get enough of the topic.
"We will not be stopping for commercials tonight ... because I am wearing a diaper," Jay Leno joked Thursday.
And David Letterman told his audience that when police nabbed astronaut Lisa Nowak in Florida, "she was wearing a wig and an adult diaper ?- and there was a lot of confusion because authorities originally thought she was Elton John."
Meanwhile, NASA officials have been besieged with questions about their special space diapers, which are officially known as "maximum absorption garments."
Who manufactures these long-distance disposables? The answer is shrouded in mystery.
According to a 1998 Associated Press article, astronauts were outfitted with Depend adult diapers and an inserted pad called Rejoice, made by a Seattle company.
But a spokesman for Kimberly-Clark, which makes Depends, insisted the product isn't used in space. And the Seattle company apparently went out of business.
A collection of astronaut toilet technology at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington revealed few clues. Curator Valerie Neal said she checked the museum's eight astro-diapers and found no labels or logos.
The aerospace undies, which come in several styles, are worn when astronauts don't have access to the spaceship toilet, Neal said.
In the early 1980s, female astronauts relied on zipper-fastened "disposable absorption containment trunks." Men wore "urine collection devices," which featured a condom-like sheath connected to a tube and pouch.
In the 1990s, these orbiting bedpans were exchanged for adult diapers laced with a liquid-absorbing chemical called sodium polyacrylate. A NASA spokeswoman said the official brand used now is Absorbencies, manufactured by a company that has folded.
Fortunately, NASA owns a huge stockpile. The agency snapped up 3,200 of the diapers about 15 years ago, the spokeswoman said, and "we still have about a third of the supply left."
On space shuttle missions, each crew member receives three diapers ?- for launch, reentry and a spare in case reentry has to be waved off and tried later.
At that rate, the supply should last for years to come, allowing astronauts to stay secure in the knowledge that in space, no one can hear you pee.
This is a topic that Star Trek has never covered.
OMG. The nappy plan is far more bizarre than the kidnapping.
But, seriously people. When you are 43, you have to go the extra mile to hang on to your man.
She'll be in trouble at 53...
Ack, I think this is one befuddled woman
Years ago I was in Las Vegas on business and spoke with a local at poolside. She told me that there are many nutty gamblers who have found their favourite one-armed-bandit.
They get to it early in the morning and stay in front of it all day, wearing diapers because they don't want to lose 'THAT' machine.