A Texas woman has pleaded guilty to fabricating a claim that her astronaut ex-wife committed a crime while serving aboard the International Space Station, bringing an unusual years-long case to a close.
According to CBS News, federal prosecutors announced that Summer Heather Worden, 50, admitted to lying to law enforcement in 2019 when she accused her former spouse, astronaut Anne McClain, of illegally accessing her bank account while McClain was deployed in orbit.
At the time, the claim drew international attention because it appeared to allege the first crime ever committed in space.
According to the Department of Justice, Worden contacted authorities in July 2019, telling them McClain had accessed her account without permission earlier that year. McClain had been stationed on the ISS from December 2018 until June 2019.
But investigators with NASA’s Office of Inspector General later determined the account had been opened in April 2018 and that both women had shared access until January 2019.
They also found that Worden had regularly provided McClain with her banking login information dating back to 2015.
McClain told reporters in 2019 that she accessed the account only to monitor the couple’s finances and did so with Worden’s permission.
Worden, a former Air Force intelligence officer, rejected that explanation and filed separate complaints with the Federal Trade Commission and NASA’s inspector general. Her family also accused McClain of identity theft.
As the accusations became public, McClain said on social media that she and Worden had “been going through a painful, personal separation that’s now unfortunately in the media,” and maintained she had done nothing improper.
Worden pleaded guilty on Nov. 13 to one count of making false statements to federal investigators.
She is scheduled to be sentenced in February 2026 and faces a potential maximum of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. She remains free on bond until her hearing.
After the controversy, McClain continued her NASA career and returned to the ISS in 2025, participating in a spacewalk during her mission.
Years earlier, she had been slated for NASA’s first all-female spacewalk, but the event was reassigned when a properly sized suit was unavailable. The historic walk was later completed by astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir.
