Did Astronaut Lisa Nowak, Love Triangle Attacker, Wear Diaper?

Feb. 17, 2011 — -- It was an out-of-this-world love triangle that launched a bizarre assault: In February 2007, astronaut Lisa Nowak attacked Air Force officer Colleen Shipman with pepper spray at a Florida airport parking lot. Behind the attack was Nowak's jealousy over Shipman's three-month romance with astronaut William Oefelein, Nowak's former lover. Nowak later pled guilty to one felony and one misdemeanor charge associated with the attack.

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The details of the attack were sensational. To get to Shipman, Nowak drove some 900 miles across five states. Surveillance cameras caught Nowak dressed in a trench coat and wig as she shadowed her prey at Orlando International Airport, where Shipman had just gotten off a flight. In a duffel bag at the scene of the crime, police found a variety of weapons, including a two-pound mallet, a 9-millimeter semi-automatic replica BB gun and surgical tubing.

But one particular detail took the attack from headlines to punchlines. During launch and re-entry astronauts don't have time for bathroom breaks, so under their space suits, during training and real missions, you would find a Maximum Absorption Garment -- what we call adult diapers on earth. A police report on the Florida attack said Nowak told a detective that she used diapers to avoid making pit stops during her road trip to confront Shipman.

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Late night comics made Lisa Nowak and her alleged diaper use a comedic staple for days.

"Imagine wearing a diaper all day without changing it. Must have felt like one of Britney Spears kids," joked Jay Leno. "As you know she went to court yesterday and was released on her own incontinence."

"A woman who's willing to wear a diaper so I don't have to pull over in the car? I would marry that woman!" quipped Jimmy Kimmel. Click here for more from late night comics.

But for all the buzz, Nowak would ultimately contest the diaper story.

Orlando Detective William Becton was the first to discover the diapers when he opened a trash bag inside Lisa Nowak's car and found two used diapers. In his charging affidavit he wrote, "… I then asked Mrs. Nowak why she had the baby diapers. Mrs. Nowak said that she did not want to stop and use the restroom, so, she used the diapers to collect her urine."

Detective Becton secured plenty of evidence from the car, but did not photograph or collect the two used diapers from the back seat of Nowak's car, or the "twenty to thirty unused diapers" that he found in the trunk. This omission allowed some wiggle room for Nowak's lawyer.