Astronaut on Assault Charge to Use Insanity Defence

A former Nasa astronaut accused of assaulting and trying to kidnap her rival in a love triangle will pursue a defence of insanity at her trial next month, according to documents released by her lawyers yesterday.

Lisa Nowak, 44, suffered from major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, insomnia and a "brief psychotic disorder with marked stressors" in the run-up to her arrest in February for assaulting Colleen Shipman at Orlando International Airport, court papers said.

Donald Lykkebak, her lawyer, also said that Nowak had recently lost 15% of her body weight and that she would cite her marital separation and an inability to confide in members of her direct family.

In one of the most bizarre incidents involving an active Nasa astronaut, Mrs Nowak apparently drove nearly 1,000 miles from Houston, Texas, to Orlando to confront Mrs Shipman, the girlfriend of a former space shuttle pilot Nowak had been involved with.

The married mother of three, who is separated from her husband, had been subjected to Nasa's rigorous screening process and trained for 10 years to cope with extreme stress before her flight in the Discovery space shuttle. But by her own admission to Orlando police, Mrs Nowak set out on her drive carrying a carbon-dioxide powered pellet gun, a folding knife, pepper spray, a steel mallet and $600 (£300) in cash. She also had several large black bin liners, six latex gloves and rubber tubing, as well as a wig and two hooded trenchcoats for disguise.

The police affidavit states that she had discovered that Mrs Shipman, a US air force captain, was flying in from Houston to Orlando that night.

Mr Oefelein told investigators that he met Ms Shipman at a training exercise at Kennedy space center last November and the two relationships overlapped. Even when he ended his affair with Mrs Nowak in the new year he continued to be in contact with her.

Mrs Nowak was dismissed from the astronaut corps a month after her arrest and her trial is due to start in late September.