A former Air Pressure Intelligence officer has pleaded responsible to mendacity to regulation enforcement when she claimed her then-estranged astronaut spouse dedicated the primary crime in area, in accordance with authorities.
Summer time Worden, 50, faces as much as 5 years in jail and a $250,000 most effective for falsely alleging prime NASA astronaut and then-spouse Anna McClain accessed Worden’s checking account from the Worldwide Area Station, the US Lawyer’s Workplace, Southern District of Texas mentioned in a press launch.
Worden’s responsible plea Thursday put an finish to a bitter authorized feud with McClain.
Worden alleged McClain had guessed the password and illegally accessed her checking account in January 2019 whereas the pair was nonetheless married and McClain was deployed on a six-month mission to the Worldwide Area Station, prosecutors mentioned.
The false declare sparked an investigation by the Federal Commerce Fee and NASA’s Inspector Basic, the New York Instances reported.
Worden had truly opened the checking account in 2018, and each she and McClain accessed it till January 2019, when Worden modified the credentials, authorities mentioned.
Investigators uncovered proof that Worden had granted her partner entry to her financial institution data from at the very least 2015, together with her login credentials, prosecutors mentioned.
Because the allegations first emerged, McClain has maintained that she had entry to Worden’s accounts to handle the couple’s intertwined funds together with her full information, the Instances reported.
The couple was within the midst of a brutal separation and parental dispute when Worden, a former Air Pressure Intelligence officer residing in Kansas, waged the allegations, the outlet beforehand reported.
Their divorce was finalized in January 2020, KSDK reported.
McClain returned to the Worldwide Area Station in March 2025 as commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission. She was chosen as an astronaut by NASA in 2013.
Worden might be sentenced Feb. 12. She has been allowed to stay on bond pending that listening to, authorities mentioned.
