Love, lust, lost

Americans were surprised to learn recently that the Sun and stars are not the only hot bodies out there in space. Paul Zach of the United States Bureau reports.

US ASTRONAUT Bill Oefelein was already in orbit in December when he received a message from cyberspace that sent him over the moon.

'First urge will be to rip your clothes off, throw you on the ground and love the hell out of you,' said an e-mail from Colleen Shipman, who was awaiting his return back on earth.

That e-mail was titled 'I need a rub down'. It was sent by Air Force Captain Shipman to Navy Commander Oefelein, the day before he landed Nasa's last space shuttle mission back on Earth.

Little did the couple know, however, that alien eyes had invaded their universe. Fellow astronaut Lisa Nowak, 43 - who also had her sights set on Oefelein - saw the steamy message.

The e-mail was among documents released this week by prosecutors, who have charged Nowak with trying to kidnap Capt Shipman and burglary with assault, in a case prompted apparently by a bizarre love triangle.

On Wednesday, the United States space agency, Nasa, clipped Nowak's wings, little more than six months after her first - and last - mission, a 13-day trip to the International Space Station.

A Navy captain who had been in the space programme for a decade, she had apparently discovered the e-mail - and others - in the computer of Cmdr Oefelein, a 41-year-old space shuttle pilot, at his earth-bound apartment.

The documents revealed that he had an affair with Nowak - who is married and a mother of three - for at least two years before he met Capt Shipman late last year.

Nowak still had a key to his apartment, and access to his computer. Apparently that was where she found the cheeky e-mails that Capt Shipman had been sending Cmdr Oefelein, while he was both in space and on earth.

In the one sent to him in space, she said: 'Will have to control myself when I see you.'

She later added: 'But honestly, love, I want you to totally and thoroughly enjoy your hero's homecoming.'

In another e-mail, Capt Shipman told Cmdr Oefelein: 'The thought of you without clothes is pretty nice.'

She sent more to his Nasa office in January. 'I love you and I am head-over-heels IN love with you,' said one.

Cmdr Oefelein responded the next day from his Nasa office e-mail: 'You must really have me around your finger that I can't even function without you here, and with you here I am slightly smarter than a slug.'

Seeing those e-mails was what apparently launched Nowak on a bizarre space odyssey last month.

She reached into her flight bag for a diaper. Then she drove more than 1,500 km from Houston to Florida - without having to stop for bathroom breaks - to confront the rival for her affections.

Disguised in a wig and trench coat, police say Nowak approached Capt Shipman's car at the Orlando airport on Feb 5 and then doused her with pepper spray.

Police found a steel mallet, a serrated knife and a loaded pellet gun in her car, along with copies of more than a dozen juicy e-mails.

They also found 30 unused diapers, as well as a receipt for a night in a motel room on the road, which she paid for in cash and checked in to under the name 'Linda Turner'.

Nowak told police she only planned to 'scare' Capt Shipman into talking about her relationship with Cmdr Oefelein.

The shuttle pilot admitted to investigators that he had been involved with Nowak.

'We had a relationship but, you know, never really said the word 'girlfriend',' he told them.

Then he met Capt Shipman while training in Florida several weeks before his December launch aboard shuttle Discovery - and the e-mail she sent him in space that apparently led to Nowak's fall from grace.

After pleading not guilty to kidnapping and other charges, Nowak was released on bail with an ankle monitoring device before Nasa sacked her.

It was the first time Nasa has publicly fired an astronaut, according to space historian Roger Launius of the Smithsonian Institution. She is also the first active astronaut to be charged with a felony, he said.

Nasa has chosen a substitute spacecraft communicator to replace Nowak for a shuttle flight to launch next month.

In addition to the e-mails, documents in the case also include an undated letter to Cmdr Oefelein's mother in which Nowak wrote that she was taking steps to divorce her husband so that she could be with Cmdr Oefelein.

'Bill is absolutely the best person I've ever known and I love him more than I knew possible,' Nowak wrote. Nowak thanked Cmdr Oefelein's mother for supporting her relationship with Cmdr Oefelein, 'especially since my parents are not as supportive right now'.

Cmdr Oefelein told investigators that when he broke up with Nowak in January, she 'seemed a little disappointed, but she seemed to be accepting of that'.

They agreed to be gym partners and train for a bicycle race together, he said. Nowak still called Cmdr Oefelein daily and left friendly messages, he said, but 'I wasn't always receptive to the phone call'.

The lingering feelings between Cmdr Oefelein and Nowak apparently worried Capt Shipman. She asked Cmdr Oefelein 'point-blank' if his romantic relationship with Nowak was over.

'Because you know how these things go,' Capt Shipman told detectives. 'I said, 'Is there gonna be some crazy lady showing up at my door, trying to kill me?'

He said, 'No ... she's not like that. She's fine with it. She's happy for me.'

WITH ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM AP AND AFP

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Steamy e-mail messages

FROM: Colleen

SENT: Jan 8, 2007, 6.29pm

TO: William

Am only sure of two things tonight.

1. I love you and I am head-over-heels IN love with you.

2. I'd really like a bath tonight.

That might be three things. I miss you.

William replied: Sorry not to be there in person for you now, but I am still with you where it matters.

By the way, need help with No. 2 below!?! If not now, then the next time, OK?

FROM: William

SENT: Jan 9, 2007, 8.53am

TO: Colleen

I need to see you - I am having Colleen withdrawals.

Must see Colleen.

FROM: Colleen

SENT: Jan10, 2007, 1.20pm

TO: William

Ugh! I have to go some place cold and snowy & arg! I'm taking your picture with me & because I like to look at you & I miss you & you're hot & I miss you & to get through the cold and snowy and lonely night. Did I mention I miss you? *sigh*

FROM: William.

SENT: Not dated.

TO: Colleen

I promise to stop bugging you with these annoying trips but I need my beautiful Irish girl to keep the evil, ugly bread canister ladies away from me.

FROM: Colleen

SENT: Jan 17, 2007, 5.18pm

TO: William

Was thinking about you today. Took one of our pictures to work to put on my desk. I like it there. Makes the workday bearable.

Love you!