Colleen Shipman eyed the woman in the tan trenchcoat suspiciously. The woman appeared to have been following her ever since she left the baggage claim area at Orlando International Airport in the pre-dawn hours Monday... Nervous, Shipman quickly got in her vehicle and locked the doors. The woman slapped at the car window. "Can you help me, please?" she asked Shipman. "My boyfriend was supposed to pick me up and he is not here." The woman asked to use Shipman's cell phone, but Shipman refused. When the woman indicated she couldn't hear her, Shipman lowered her window about two inches. Then the woman unleashed pepper spray in Shipman's face, according to a police affidavit...

The cops arrested the woman and soon discovered her startling identity: Lisa Nowak, NASA astronaut...

Authorities allege that Nowak attacked Shipman over a mutual romantic interest: astronaut William Oefelein, who piloted the space shuttle Discovery in December... According to a police affidavit, Nowak, 43 and married with three kids, described her relationship with Oefelein as "more than a working relationship, but less than a romantic relationship..." When she found Shipman's flight information-which she allegedly retrieved from Oefelein's computer-she drove 900 miles from Texas to Orlando. She was so determined to avoid delays that she used diapers to relieve herself (as astronauts commonly do in space).