NASA Career
Nowak was selected to be an astronaut in 1996 and entered the NASA Astronaut Corps at Johnson Space Center in August of that year. She qualified as a mission specialist in robotics, and was assigned to a future mission designated STS-118. After schedule changes, she instead went into space on July 4, 2006, as a member of the STS-121 crew assigned to the International Space Station. Nowak served as mission flight engineer, operated the Shuttle's robotic arm during several spacewalks, and logged almost 13 days in space.
On February 6, 2007, following an arrest in Florida for attempted kidnapping, Nowak was placed on 30-day leave by NASA. She returned to Houston, Texas, on a commercial airline flight the next day and upon arrival was reportedly taken immediately under police escort to the Johnson Space Center for medical and psychiatric evaluation. Nowak's assignment to NASA as a serving Navy officer was terminated by the space agency on March 7, 2007.
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