NASA and the US Consumer Protection Agency are investigating the possible first case of a covert in space. An astronaut is said to have logged into the online banking account of her former spouse and transferred money from the International Space Station (ISS).
NASA astronaut Anne McClain, who served on the ISS for six months, admitted after interviewing her after returning to Earth to log into the account, the New York Times reported Saturday. But she denies any wrongdoing.
Her spouse, Summer Worden, previously filed a complaint with NASA and the US Consumer Protection Agency. The couple does not live together anymore.
„Never done anything inappropriate“
McClain said through her lawyer to The New York Times that she had only made an effort to keep family finances in order and to ensure that the bills and expenses for the son of Worden were raised together until their separation had to be paid. „She denies quite decidedly that she did something inappropriate,“ said McClain’s lawyer Rusty Hardin.
For years, McClain was a US Air Force fighter pilot and flew numerous combat missions, including in Iraq. Worden, in turn, is an Air Force intelligence officer. The couple got married in 2014 and Worden filed for divorce last year.
She had been responsible for the family’s finances throughout the relationship, and regularly accessed Worden’s account. That never bothered them either. And Worden did not tell her she was no longer accessing her account, McClain claimed.
According to the newspaper, there is no evidence that money has been lost on the account. However, former partner McClains accused the astronaut to the authorities about identity theft. Another complaint filed with NASA alleges that McClain’s access to the account has served to provide arguments for denying their ex custody of their son. The investigations are ongoing.
National law applies
Five national space agencies are involved in the ISS: the US, Canada, Japan, Russia and several European countries (via ESA). The regulation between the agencies provides that the national law applies to persons and objects in space. Thus, if a Canadian citizen commits a crime or offense in space, he will be convicted under Canadian law and a Russian citizen would be subject to Russian law.
Mark Sundahl, head of the Center for Space Law at Cleveland University, said the current case was the first known accusation of an outlaw in space. NASA also told the NYT that it was not aware of any crimes on the space station. The law of the universe regulates also the extradition back to the earth, if a state decides to indict an astronaut or an astronaut.
Test case for the future
The case sounds obscure at first, but could become significantly more relevant in the near future. Namely, when the different projects for space tourism take off and suddenly significantly more people – at least in the short term – will be in space.
The marriage quarrel in space is likely to be the first such case – but not the last, according to the New York Times quoted lawyer Sundahl: „The more people get into space and spend time there, the more things they do happen here, even happen in space. “
Matching space suit was missing
Incidentally, McClain’s efforts had already caused quite a stir in the spring, albeit for quite a different reason: she was supposed to have taken part in the first astronaut-only outdoor mission at the ISS in March. However, this did not happen because there were not enough suit suits available.
Both McClain and the US astronaut Christina Koch had the space suit top in medium-sized fit, but only one of them was operational. McClain completed two outdoor missions with male colleagues. The first woman on the field was Svetlana Sawizkaja in 1984, Peggy Whitson holds the record with ten outdoor appearances.
