Shuttle pilot William Oefelein, the astronaut who was involved in the Lisa Nowak love triangle, is being shipped back to the U.S. Navy, NASA officials told Local 6 News partner Florida Today.
Oefelein was told that his detail to NASA will end on June 1.
"The Navy and NASA have mutually agreed to end his detail to NASA," said Kylie Clem, a spokeswoman at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Clem said Oefelein completed his assignment as the pilot of shuttle Discovery on an International Space Station assembly mission in December and would be returning to the Navy, the report said.
Officials at the Chief of Naval Information Office at the Pentagon were unable to say what Oefelein's status with the Navy would be when his detail to the NASA Astronaut Office ends next week.
Since returning to Earth in late December, Oefelein has been carrying out a technical assignment with the shuttle branch of the NASA Astronaut Office. His job has been to take part in mission simulations that are carried out as part of a flight controller training program.
Nowak was charged Feb. 6 with attempted kidnapping, battery and destruction of evidence after police said she drove non-stop from Houston to Orlando to confront Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman -- a romantic rival -- in an Orlando International Airport parking lot. Police said Nowak wore diapers during the 900-mile trip so she would not have to stop to go to the bathroom, according to Florida Today.
Once at the airport, police said, Nowak pepper-sprayed Shipman in an effort to get the woman to talk with her. Nowak was wearing a disguise and had brought with her a BB pistol, knife, medical rubber tubing and garbage bags.
Nowak had been involved in a romantic relationship with Oefelein, according to the report. He broke it off to see Shipman, who is stationed at Patrick Air Force Base.
Nowak was fired from NASA but still is with the Navy. She's been reassigned to the staff at the Chief of Naval Air Training in Corpus Christi, Texas. Her criminal trial in Orlando now is set for September.
Both Nowak and Oefelein also could face court-martials for cheating on their spouses, conduct that the military considers unbecoming to an officer, officials said. Oefelein is divorced and Nowak is separated.
Oefelein, 42, a father of two children, flew his first space mission in December, piloting Discovery on an 13-day International Space Station assembly flight. From window perches inside the shuttle and the station, he orchestrated four spacewalks during one of the most complex outpost construction missions to date.
Nicknamed "Billy O," Oefelein -- a U.S. Navy commander -- was detailed to NASA in 1998. A TOPGUN pilot and later an instructor at the U.S. Navy Test Pilot School, he has logged over 3,000 hours in more than 50 aircraft and has more than 200 carrier landings.
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