Topics: NASA, International Space Station, Space, Crime
The former wife of NASA astronaut Anne McClain has been sentenced to prison following her claim that McClain used her time in space to commit a crime.
Summer Heather Worden, a former US Air Force intelligence officer, falsely accused her ex of illegally accessing her bank account while in space.
Worden pled guilty in November to claims she lied to authorities about the first ever crime committed at the International Space Station (ISS).
Her accusation came in July 2019, stating she allegedly had guessed her password and illegally gained access to her bank account in January 2019 when the pair were married.
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According to Worden, she said she asked the bank of the locations of computers that had accessed her bank account with her login details, per The New York Times, which apparently led to a device registered to NASA.
However, it was all a complex lie.
An Investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and NASA's Inspector General found that McClain had express permission to manage their shared finances using Worden’s credentials since at least 2015.
The police report came six months after she changed the login details and was in the middle of a custody battle regarding her son, who she had one year prior to meeting McClain.
"However, Worden had actually opened the account in April 2018. 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," a November 2025 release from the DA's office revealed.
McClain and Worden were married from 2014 to 2019, per The New York Times, which came to an end after Worden filed for divorce in 2018 after McClain accused her of assault.
On Thursday (February 12), the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas announced that subsequently, Worden had been sentenced in court to three months in federal prison, which will be followed by two years of supervised release.
On top of jail time, the 51-year-old was ordered to pay $210,000 in restitution because of her claim.
"Even after an internal investigation exonerated the former spouse, Worden continued promoting the false claim to news outlets and hired a media consultant to amplify the claim. The evidence further showed Worden publicly released her former spouse’s personal information," The Office’s release stated.
