WASHINGTON, Aug 25, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – US space agency NASA is investigating
what may be the first crime committed in outer space, The New York Times
reported Saturday.
Astronaut Anne McClain is accused of identity theft and improperly
accessing her estranged wife’s private financial records while on a sixth-
month mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), the Times said.
The astronaut’s spouse Summer Worden filed a complaint earlier this year
with the Federal Trade Commission after learning McClain had accessed her
bank account without permission, while Worden’s family filed another with
NASA’s Office of Inspector General, according to the newspaper.
McClain’s lawyer said the astronaut had done nothing wrong and accessed the
bank records while aboard the ISS in order to monitor the couple’s combined
finances — something she had done over the course of their relationship, the
Times reported.
NASA investigators have contacted both women, according to the newspaper.
McClain, who returned to Earth in June, gained fame for being one of two
women picked for a historic all-female spacewalk, but NASA scrapped the
planned walk in March due to a lack of well-fitting spacesuits, sparking
accusations of sexism.
Worden said the FTC has not responded to the identity theft report, but
that an investigator specializing in criminal cases with NASA’s Office of
Inspector General has been looking into the accusation, according to the
Times.