Woman pleads guilty to falsely claiming astronaut ex committed crime in space
A woman has pleaded guilty to falsely reporting that her astronaut ex-wife committed a crime while deployed to the International Space Station.
Summer Heather Worden, 50, told law enforcement in July 2019 that her former spouse had illegally accessed her bank account earlier that year while she was in space, according to a news release from the Department of Justice. Her wife, previously identified as astronaut Anne McClain, was at the ISS from December 2018 to June 2019. It was the first allegation of a crime being committed in space.
An investigation by NASA’s Office of the Inspector General found that Worden had opened the bank account in April 2018 and that both she and McClain had access to it until January 2019, the Justice Department said. The investigation also found that Worden had regularly given McClain access to her bank records, including login credentials, from at least 2015, the news release said.
McClain said in 2019 that she had accessed the bank account with Worden’s permission, The New York Times reported. Worden, a former Air Force intelligence officer, disputed that claim and filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. A complaint filed to NASA’s Office of Inspector General by Worden’s family accused McClain of identity theft and improper access.
McClain denied the allegations on social media and said that she and Worden had “been going through a painful, personal separation that’s now unfortunately in the media.”
Worden pleaded guilty to one count of lying to law enforcement on Nov. 13. She will be sentenced in February 2026. Worden faces up to 5 years in federal prison, as well as a maximum possible fine of $250,000, and remains on bond pending the hearing.
McClain returned to the International Space Station in 2025. She participated in a spacewalk during the mission, years after she was set to take part in NASA’s first all-female spacewalk, which was delayed at the last minute because there were not enough suits available after she requested a size adjustment. The first all-female spacewalk was conducted by Christina Koch and Jessica Meir.
