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HOUSTON - Nasa will review the way it screens astronauts for mental or medical problems after the arrest of astronaut Lisa Nowak on charges she tried to kill a romantic rival, the US space agency said on Wednesday.
The review would look both into how astronauts are screened and whether changes should be made to ensure they "have the level of psychological and medical care and attention they need," Nasa deputy administrator Shana Dale told a news conference in Washington.
Nasa would study whether it had missed any "indications of concern" in Nowak's case, Dale said. But she said Space Center officials reported that they had seen no indications of earlier problems.
Nowak, who was released on bail in Orlando, Florida on Tuesday evening, returned earlier on Wednesday to Houston, where she lives and which is home to the Johnson Space Center. She was to undergo mental evaluation at the center.
Nowak covered her head with a jacket as she arrived aboard a flight from Orlando.
She then got into a police car that drove her across town to the space center where Nasa's astronaut corps is based.
Airline passengers and news reporters crowded at windows to watch the woman whose public fall from grace embarrassed the space agency and perplexed fellow astronauts, who described the 43-year-old, who has three children, as a hard-working, straight-arrow type.
Nowak made her first space flight in July. Her family said she and her husband, had recently separated.
A space center spokeswoman said Nowak, charged in Orlando on Tuesday with assaulting US Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman, would receive a preliminary medical and psychological examination at the center.
Nowak has told police she raced in her car nearly 1,000 miles from Houston to catch up with Shipman after learning she was flying back to her home near Orlando from the Texas city.
She said put on diapers, as astronauts do during launch and landing, so she would not have to stop for a bathroom break.
Wearing a disguise, she accosted Shipman as she got in her car at the Orlando airport and sprayed her with pepper spray.
Nowak told police she only wanted to talk to Shipman because she viewed her as a rival for the affections of astronaut Bill Oefelein.
But police charged her with attempted murder and kidnapping and other charges because she was carrying a knife, steel mallet and BB gun when she was arrested. She was freed on Tuesday on US$25,500 bail and ordered to wear an ankle bracelet with a monitoring device.
Nowak told police her connection to Oefelein was "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship." Officers said they found a love letter she had written to him in her car.
Oefelein, who flew on a shuttle flight in December, has stayed out of sight and made no comment.
Johnson Space Center director Michael Coats said on Tuesday Nasa was "deeply saddened by this tragic event" and that Nowak would go on leave, ineligible for space flights until further notice.
Nowak lives near the space center in a two-story house, where neighbors on Wednesday were seen entering with groceries and placing blinds over a front window ahead of her possible arrival.
- REUTERS
