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HOUSTON — Federal prosecutors say a case that was widely reported to be the first case of “space crime” has come to an end after a 50-year-old Kansas woman pleaded guilty to falsely accusing her now ex-wife of illegally accessing an online bank account from the International Space Station in early 2019.
According to a plea agreement in the case, Summer Heather Worden had accused NASA astronaut Col. Anne McClain (identified in court documents as “Person A” and as an “estranged spouse” in a U.S. Attorney’s Office statement) of illegally accessing her bank account twice in January 2019 while she was serving aboard the ISS.
Worden told investigators on March 19, 2019, that McClain had “guessed the password and illegally accessed her bank account,” one she had opened in September 2018, “to prevent (McClain) from accessing her accounts.”
“However, Worden had actually opened the account in April 2018,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office statement said. “Both parties had accessed it until January 2019, when Worden changed the credentials.
“The investigation revealed Worden had granted her spouse access to her bank records from at least 2015, including her login credentials.”
In an Aug. 24, 2019, post on Twitter (now X), McClain said that there was “unequivocally no truth to these claims. We’ve been going through a painful, personal separation that’s now unfortunately in the media.”
She concluded by saying she had “total confidence in the (NASA Office of the Inspector General) process.”
Court records in Travis County, Texas, show that Worden and McClain divorced in early 2020.
As part of the plea agreement, Worden faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
She is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 12, 2026, and information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas says she will remain free on bond until that hearing.
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Mark Boxley
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