Couple in astronaut assault case plan to marry

MELBOURNE, Fla. - A Florida attorney says a couple who were rocketed into the public eye by the antics of a former astronaut are getting married.

Kepler Funk, a Melbourne attorney who represents Colleen Shipman, said Friday that she and former space shuttle pilot Bill Oefelein have gotten engaged.

The two, who now live in Alaska, are planning a wedding next summer in Pennsylvania, according to an engagement announcement appearing in the Anchorage Daily News. Shipman's parents live in Pennsylvania.

Authorities say that Lisa Nowak, who worked with Oefelein in NASA's space program, famously drove from Houston to the parking lot of Orlando International Airport in February 2007 to confront Shipman.

Nowak is set to go on trial Dec. 7 on charges of attempted kidnapping, burglary and battery with assault. She was dismissed from the astronaut corps after her arrest and has since been on active duty at a Navy base in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Oefelein also left the astronaut corps after the case came to light and now works as a test pilot instructor. Shipman is a freelance writer, and the couple's Web site indicates that they are both proprietors of a freelance adventure writing and motivational buiness.

According to the Daily News announcement, Oefelein proposed to Shipman during a 110-mile canoe trip on June 20. "Billy O. retrieved a ring he had hidden in a fishing box and proposed to his love on bended knee," the announcement read.

This report includes information from The Associated Press and WESH-TV in Orlando, Fla.

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