Astronaut 'suffered a lot of mental anguish'

By Rasha Madkour and David Crary

updated 8:03 p.m. ET Feb. 7, 2007

HOUSTON - Lisa Nowak chose a juggling act of dauntingly high difficulty: to be an astronaut and a mother of three.

Her background — high school valedictorian, Naval Academy graduate, test pilot — seemed to equip her for the challenge. Yet as she and some of her acquaintances acknowledged, the stresses on her and her family were extraordinarily intense.

On Wednesday, transformed from space hero to criminal suspect, Nowak returned to Houston for a medical assessment, a day after she was charged in Florida with attempted murder and attempted kidnapping in what police depicted as a love triangle involving a fellow astronaut.

The woman viewed as a role model by the schoolchildren she often addressed was met on the tarmac by police and escorted into a waiting squad car after her release on bail. Her head was covered by a jacket. She faced a medical exam at Johnson Space Center.

NASA says it will revamp screening process
NASA, at a loss to explain what went wrong, said it would revamp its psychological screening process in light of Nowak’s arrest. The review will look at how astronauts are screened for psychological problems and whether Nowak’s dealings with co-workers signaled complications.

Nowak’s children were with her husband, Richard, who works for a NASA contractor. She was being replaced as a ground communicator for the next space shuttle mission in March, a job in which she would talk to the astronauts from Houston during their flight.

Some part of any breakdown may defy rational explanation, but those who know Nowak and NASA could sense the stress she was under.

Dr. Jon Clark, a former NASA flight surgeon who lost his wife, astronaut Laurel Clark, in the 2003 Columbia disaster, said Nowak provided invaluable support to his family then, at the cost of losing time with her own family.

'Mental anguish'
“She was the epitome of managing a very hectic career, making sacrifices to accommodate her family,” Clark said in a telephone interview. “All those stresses can conspire to be overwhelming. ... Clearly she suffered a lot of mental anguish.

“There is a lot of marital stress in the astronaut corps in general — a huge amount,” Clark said.

“It’s not unheard of for things to change into relationships that are beyond professional.”
Clark also said there can be extra pressure on NASA’s female astronauts — and the men, like himself, who marry them.

“They made more sacrifices than the ’Right Stuff’ guys,” he said, comparing women astronauts to the original all-male astronaut corps. “They have to balance two careers — to be a mom and wife and an astronaut. ... You don’t come home at night, like most of the male astronauts, and have everything ready for you.”

Clark expressed empathy with Richard Nowak, who separated from his wife a few weeks ago after 19 years of marriage.

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