It was the [1]first allegation of a crime committed in space — back in 2019. But by 2020 it had led to [2]charges of lying to federal authorities . And now a former Air Force intelligence officer "has pleaded guilty to lying to a federal agent," [3]reports CNBC , "by falsely claiming that her estranged astronaut wife illegally accessed her bank account while aboard the International Space Station for six months, [4]prosecutors in Houston, Texas, said Friday ."

> The guilty plea by Summer Worden, 50, on Thursday comes more than five years after she was [5]indicted in the space case for lying about actions by her wife, Anne McClain, a U.S. Army colonel, West Point graduate and Iraq war combat veteran, while they were in the midst of a divorce. The claim came at a time when Worden said that the couple was engaged in [6]a custody battle over what Worden's then-6-year-old son, who had been conceived through in vitro fertilizationand carried by a surrogate...

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> McClain was aboard the Space Station from December 2018 through June 2019. She recently commanded the SpaceX Crew-10 crew mission to the Space Station from March this year until August.

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> Worden, who remains free on bond, is scheduled to be sentenced on February 12. She faces a maximum possible sentence of up to five years in prison.



[1] https://science.slashdot.org/story/19/08/24/2020228/first-alleged-crime-in-space

[2] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/04/07/2135225/nasa-astronauts-estranged-wife-charged-with-lying-about-space-crime-allegation

[3] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/14/space-station-nasa-guilty-wife-bank-account.html

[4] https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/far-out-woman-guilty-false-reports-illegal-bank-account-access-international-space

[5] https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/woman-charged-falsely-claiming-officer-accessed-her-bank-account-international-space

[6] https://www.click2houston.com/news/2019/08/24/houston-astronaut-accused-of-hacking-ex-spouses-bank-account-from-space/