A woman has pleaded guilty to fabricating that her estranged astronaut wife illegally accessed her bank account from space.
Summer Worden, 50, faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 after she lied to federal agents, claiming to be the first victim of a crime committed beyond Earth.
The former Air Force Intelligence officer has been through a year of legal disputes with her ex-wife Anne McClain, a NASA astronaut and Iraq War veteran.
She had falsely claimed that McClain, while on the International Space Station in 2019, had guessed her password and accessed her bank account in January of that year, according to the Southern District of Texas US Attorney’s Office.
Worden pleaded guilty on Thursday to two counts of lying to law enforcement.
The damning accusation sparked an investigation from the Federal Trade Commission and NASA’s Inspector General.
But federal investigators discovered that Worden had given her wife access to the accounts in 2015, due to the couple’s shared finances, the New York Times reported.
Worden was indicted and accused of lying about when she opened her bank account and when she would have changed her password.
The indictment, unsealed in April 2020, charged Worden with two counts of making false statements to NASA’s Office of Inspector General and to the Federal Trade Commission.
Summer Worden, 50, revealed that she had lied to federal agents after accusing her estranged wife of illegally accessing her personal bank account from the International Space Station
Anne McClain, a NASA astronaut and Iraq War veteran, claimed to have accessed the account throughout the relationship and continued to do so after their split with Worden’s knowledge
Their legal battle also involved Worden’s then-six-year-old son, who was born through surrogacy about one year before the pair met
Worden had made complaints to both the Federal Trade Commission and NASA’s Office of Inspector General, claiming that McClain had attempted to steal her identity, the Times reported.
At the time, Worden claimed she had mistakenly given investigators the incorrect dates for when she opened the account and later provided the correct date.
She further claimed she intended to change the password upon creation of the new account.
‘I didn’t misrepresent anything,’ she argued, per the outlet.
The exes, who share children, had used the account for family expenses, which is what McClain’s lawyer said was the reason she continued to access the account.
She had filed for divorce months after opening a personal bank account in 2018, but accused McClain of accessing it in January of 2019.
McClain claimed to have accessed the account throughout the relationship and continued to do so after their split with Worden’s knowledge.
She added that Worden had never told her she could no longer have access.
Worden hadn’t allowed McClain to adopt the boy, and McClain petitioned in court in 2018 for shared parenting rights
McClain returned to space in March 2025 as commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission, and she returned to Earth once again in August
Worden (left), who pleaded guilty in Texas on Thursday to two counts of lying to law enforcement, faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000
Their legal battle also involved Worden’s then-six-year-old son, who was born through surrogacy about one year before the pair met.
Worden hadn’t allowed McClain to adopt the boy, and McClain petitioned in court in 2018 for shared parenting rights.
McClain argued at the time that Worden was prone to have an explosive temper and a history of making rash financial decisions. During the bitter custody battle, she wanted the court to ‘legally validate my established and deep parental relationship’ with their son, the Times reported.
McClain said that her accessing Worden’s bank account was to assure that their son was being properly cared for.
Worden, for her part, argued that McClain should have reasonably known it was inappropriate for her to have been accessing Worden’s account during their divorce and dispute over their son.
McClain headed to space in March 2025 as commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission, and returned to Earth once again in August.
Worden, who is currently released on bond, is set to be sentenced on February 12, 2026.
