A top NASA astronaut who has had an accomplished career with the military is now being accused of hacking into her estranged spouse’s bank account from outer space.
Lt Col. Anne McClain allegedly accessed the bank account of her former partner, Summer Worden, while aboard the International space station earlier this year.
According to NBC News, the two women are in the process of a divorce and battling over custody of their six-year-old son.
Worden, who is a former Air Force Intelligence officer, conceived the child through in vitro fertilization and had him via surrogate. She met McClain when her son was a year old, and married in 2014. The couple began experiencing difficulties after three short years of marriage.
In 2018, Lt Col McClain asked a judge to grant her shared parenting rights of the child, saying in court documents that she had been “there for his first steps and his first words” and that they had a very healthy parental relationship.
McClain also appeared on the Today show in May of that year where she proudly discussed what it was like to parent as a busy astronaut and shared plans for an upcoming trip to the International Space Station.
According to KPRC in Houston, there were allegations in court that Worden assaulted McClain, but those accusations were eventually dropped. Then, earlier this year, Worden noticed that McClain had accessed her bank accounts while the astronaut was away at the space station.
Worden told KPRC that her bank “did give evidence to my attorneys that she did access my bank accounts.”
Worden’s attorneys wrote to the NASA Office of Inspector General in July to report the alleged breach.
“I was shocked and appalled at the audacity by her to think that she could get away with that, and I was very disheartened that I couldn’t keep anything private,” she said.
Attorneys for McClain offered no immediate comment.
