A Kansas woman and former Air Force intelligence officer has pleaded guilty to lying about her estranged astronaut wife accessing her bank account from the International Space Station to commit the “first crime in space.”
Federal prosecutors in Texas say 50-year-old Summer Worden admitted in court on Thursday, November 13, that she fabricated accusations against Anne McClain, a U.S. Army colonel and NASA astronaut, during a contentious divorce and custody dispute in 2019. Worden was indicted for lying about her wife’s actions more than five years ago.
Worden previously told investigators that McClain illegally accessed her bank account while orbiting the Earth on a six-month ISS mission, prompting headlines worldwide and sparking an unusual NASA Office of Inspector General inquiry.
First crime in space never actually happened
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas said Worden had actually opened the account herself in 2018 and had shared login credentials with McClain for years. According to court documents, both women accessed the account until early 2019, when Worden changed the password during their separation.
Prosecutors said Worden falsely reported McClain for identity theft to NASA OIG and the Federal Trade Commission, triggering a federal investigation as McClain prepared for what was at the time expected to be NASA’s first all-female spacewalk. McClain has consistently denied any wrongdoing, with her attorney telling The New York Times in 2019 that she was simply checking on the couple’s shared finances.
McClain returned to Earth in June 2019 and has continued her career with NASA. Most recently, she served as commander of the SpaceX Crew-10 mission to the ISS from March to August 2025.
Worden’s trial was scheduled to begin next week before she entered the guilty plea. She remains free on bond and is set to be sentenced on February 12, where she faces up to five years in federal
