In space, nobody can hear you scheme. On Earth, it turns out, it’s a different story.
This week, a 51-year-old woman was sentenced to federal prison for making far-out and ultimately weightless accusations – that her former spouse had illegally accessed her bank account as an astronaut aboard the International Space Station in the summer of 2019.
Summer Heather Worden, of Sedgwick County, Kansas, was given three months behind bars with two years of supervised release for making false, fictitious and fraudulent statements and representations to law enforcement, the U.S. Department of Justice said. U.S. District Judge Alfred Bennett of the Southern District of Texas also ordered her to pay $210,000 in restitution.
Worden pleaded guilty in November 2025.
According to court documents, Worden falsely accused her astronaut ex-wife, Anne McClain, of guessing the password to her bank account and improperly accessing it from the space station while the two were going through a divorce.
