Guilty Plea Ends The “Lesbian Space Crime” Saga For Good
After years of legal wrangling, investigators say the only wrongdoing in the saga happened on the ground.
Featured image by Brandon Bell/Getty Images
The story that once spawned headlines about a supposed “space crime” has come to a terrestrial close. Summer Heather Worden, a former Air Force intelligence officer, has pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators after falsely accusing her estranged wife, NASA astronaut Anne McClain, of accessing her bank account from the International Space Station.
Worden entered her plea last week and now faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentencing is set for February 12, 2026.
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The saga began in 2019, when Worden told authorities that McClain had illegally accessed her personal bank account while orbiting 250 miles above Earth. At the time, McClain was serving as a flight engineer on Expedition 58/59, a mission that ran from December 2018 through June 2019. Worden went public with the accusation, telling Houston’s KPRC that McClain had guessed her password. It became the first allegation that a crime had been committed in space, and it drew immediate attention from both the Federal Trade Commission and NASA’s Office of Inspector General.
But investigators quickly found gaps in Worden’s story. Federal prosecutors later said she had not been truthful about when she opened the bank account or when she changed her login credentials. Evidence showed she had granted McClain access for years. NASA’s Inspector General reported that Worden had regularly provided her spouse with banking information and passwords dating back to 2015.
By April 2020, a grand jury indicted Worden on charges of making false statements. Throughout the ordeal, McClain maintained that she had done nothing improper and had simply handled joint finances with permission. When Worden’s plea became public, McClain released a statement reiterating what she had said from the beginning.
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“Ms. Worden intentionally, and with full knowledge of the truth, presented a story to federal investigators and to the media with the intention of harm,” she said. “From the outset, there was no evidence supporting her claims, and overwhelming evidence disproving them. As I continue my public service, I remain committed to the values that have defined my career and which held up under the closest scrutiny.”
McClain, a West Point graduate and U.S. Army colonel, has built one of the most accomplished résumés in NASA’s current astronaut corps. She has logged more than 2,000 flight hours in 20 different aircraft, served 15 months in Operation Iraqi Freedom, instructed helicopter pilots, and completed multiple spacewalks. This year she returned to the International Space Station as commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew 10 mission, where she spent five months overseeing research and maintenance activities.
