Who is Anne McClain, the lesbian astronaut falsely accused of committing crime in space by her ex-wife

Col. Anne McClain, an astronaut most recently deployed as commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 at the International Space Station, was accused by her estranged wife (now ex-wife), Summer Heather Worden, of illegally accessing Worden’s bank account from space during an earlier mission. Worden, a former Air Force intelligence officer and fellow astronaut, has admitted the accusation was unfounded. She pleaded guilty last week to lying to law enforcement and faces up to five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000. She will be sentenced February 12.

Here are the main points to know about the case, McClain, and a pioneering lesbian in space.

The accusation dates from 2019

Worden told Houston TV station KPRC in August 2019 that McClain accessed Worden’s bank account without permission while McClain was on the International Space Station in January of that year. Worden claimed McClain had guessed her password. It was the first allegation that a crime had been committed in space.

The accusation drew the attention of the Federal Trade Commission and NASA’s Inspector General. In 2020, a federal grand jury indicted Worden on charges of making false statements to government officials. The jury said she had lied about when she opened the account and when she changed her log-in information. She had granted McClain access to it, the jury contended. McClain said she was accessing this and other accounts with Worden’s permission as part of managing the family’s finances.

The two were in the process of a divorce at the time. Worden filed for divorce in 2018; McClain had accused her of assault, something Worden denied. The charge was eventually dismissed. The women, who married in 2014, were also fighting over custody of their son. Their divorce was finalized in 2020.

McClain has denied all along that she did anything improper. “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,” McClain said in a statement Wednesday, The New York Times reports. “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.”

A long and distinguished career

McClain, a native of Spokane, Washington, earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical/aeronautical engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 2002 and was commissioned as an Army officer. She then entered graduate school at the University of Bath in England, where she earned a master’s degree in aerospace engineering in 2004. She has additional master’s degrees in international relations from the University of Bristol and strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College.

She has been a Kiowa Warrior helicopter pilot and has instructed other pilots in operating the aircraft, according to her official NASA biography. She has logged more than 2,000 flight hours in 20 different rotary and fixed-wing aircraft and served 15 months in Operation Iraqi Freedom, flying more than 800 combat hours on 216 combat missions as pilot-in-command and air mission commander. In 2013, NASA selected her as one of eight members of its 21^st astronaut class (half of them were women). She graduated from astronaut training in 2015.

Related: NASA Chief: A Woman Will 'Likely' Be First Person on Mars

For NASA, she participated in Expedition 58/59, which spanned December 3, 2018, through June 24, 2019, as flight engineer and U.S. orbital segment lead. On the International Space Station, McClain and astronauts from Russia and Canada contributed to scientific experiments that included editing DNA in space for the first time. She was lead spacewalker on two spacewalks, totaling 13 hours and eight minutes.

This year, she was commander on NASA’s Expedition 72/73, in space from March 14 through August 9. She and colleagues from the U.S., Japan, and Russia conducted research and technology demonstrations and performed maintenance activities at the space station. McClain also had her third spacewalk, which totaled five hours and 44 minutes. She has received numerous honors, including the Distinguished Service Medal and the Bronze Star. She is also a former member of the U.S. women’s rugby team.

Following in a pioneer's space steps

The first American woman astronaut was Sally Ride, flying on the space shuttle Challenger in 1983. Ride’s lesbian identity became known only upon her death in 2012. She had been intensely private about her life, including her cancer diagnosis, but she had given her partner of 27 years, Tam O’Shaughnessy, permission to open up.

Related: 10 Things to Know: Sally Ride

After Ride retired from NASA, she joined the faculty of the University of California, San Diego, as a professor of physics and director of the California Space Institute. Then in 2001, she started Sally Ride Science to help motivate young people, especially girls, to pursue science, math, and technology.

President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, posthumously in 2013.