Their legal dispute is nothing short of extraordinary.
What started as a tumultuous separation turned into an international sensation when an ex-intelligence officer accused her astronaut spouse of committing “the first crime in space.”
Summer Worden, aged 50, alleged that NASA astronaut Anne McClain, 46, unlawfully accessed her bank account while aboard the International Space Station in 2019.
Recently unveiled court documents reveal how their relationship unraveled amidst accusations of misconduct.
Speaking publicly for the first time since Worden confessed in court that her allegations were fabricated, McClain expressed her relief to the Mail, feeling exonerated after enduring years of baseless accusations.
The couple had tied the knot in 2014, with Worden, a former Air Force intelligence officer who had a stint at the NSA. However, by 2018, their marriage was already facing significant challenges.
That year, arrest documents seen by the Daily Mail show McClain accused Worden of ‘turning physical’ in front of Worden’s six-year-old son from a previous relationship.
Worden was accused of grabbing her wife’s wrists, throwing her on to their bed and pinning her down as she tried to snatch her phone from her hands, the court documents said.
The case was dismissed with a no-contact order instated, and court documents show McClain personally requested the case not be prosecuted.
NASA astronaut Anne McClain says her ex-wife’s false claims that she committed the ‘first crime in outer space’ stemmed from a bitter custody dispute over their son (seen together) that ‘traumatized’ her while she led voyages to the International Space Station
McClain, 46, (right) told the Daily Mail that her ex-wife Summer Heather Worden, 50, (left) tried to set her up by alleging she had illegally accessed her bank account from the ISS in 2019
McClain wanted to allow Worden to care for their son while she was deployed to the ISS for the first time in 2019.
Worden was not criminally convicted, and denies the allegations.
McClain was first selected to join NASA in 2013 at the age of 34, following a distinguished military career.
She graduated from the prestigious US Military Academy at West Point and flew more than 800 combat hours in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Her first trip to the ISS came in 2019 on the Expedition 58/59. It was on this trip that she was falsely accused of hacking into her ex-wife’s bank account.
She most recently served as commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission in March, and she returned to Earth in August.
A source close to the couple told the Daily Mail that McClain did not have custody over their son at the time of the alleged assault in 2018, but had a ‘non-managing conservatorship’ because the couple lived in separate cities.
Before McClain’s first ISS mission, the source said the alleged assault erupted during a dispute in which Worden sought to end the conservatorship.
The insider said the NASA astronaut was ‘devastated’ by the alleged attack, which a police report said was witnessed by their young son.
McClain first commanded the ISS in 2019, but was hit with false allegations from her ex-wife on Earth that she had ‘illegally accessed’ her bank account from the space station while they were locked in a bitter divorce
McClain seen being picked up by NASA ground personnel in Kazakhstan when she returned to Earth in 2019, following her ISS voyage where she accessed her ex-wife’s bank account
The NASA astronaut said she feels vindicated by her ex-wife pleading guilty to lying to law enforcement over her claims that McClain committed the first ever ‘crime in space’
They alleged that subsequent claims by Worden that McClain was looking for full-custody were ‘not true’, and were perceived as an effort to gain sympathy when the allegations made headlines.
Last week, Worden pleaded guilty to lying to law enforcement in Texas court, and faces up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine for her allegations that McClain broke into her finances from space, alongside claims she swindled real estate investors in a separate scheme.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas said Worden admitted to lying about the plot and confirmed the couple had joint access to the account since at least 2015.
Worden’s allegations also prompted an investigation by NASA’s inspector general and the Federal Trade Commission, despite no money ever being removed from the account. Prosecutors said Worden knowingly misled law enforcement about her claims.
Prosecutors said Worden had granted access to their account for years, and said she admitted to lying to law enforcement over her claims that McClain illegally broke into her finances.
Following Worden’s guilty plea, McClain told the Daily Mail she was relieved the claims that she was the world’s first space criminal were proven false, and ‘the public record finally reflects what we knew to be true all along.’
McClain was first selected to join NASA in 2013 at the age of 34, following a distinguished military career, which included graduating from West Point and flying more than 800 combat hours in Operation Iraqi Freedom
She said her ex-wife ‘intentionally, and with full knowledge of the truth, presented a story to federal investigators and to the media with the intention of harm.’
‘From the outset, there was no evidence supporting her claims, and overwhelming evidence disproving them,’ she continued in a statement, saying the ‘space crime’ claims still ‘linger’ around her name today.
Worden ‘was given a platform not because she had earned credibility, but because I had—and that imbalance was exploited,’ she said.
‘This caused very real trauma to very real people, and the damage does not simply disappear when the truth finally surfaces.
‘I hope this moment reminds all of us that in today’s social-media age, sensational claims can outrun the truth in seconds.
‘When the most damaging narratives are rewarded, the human cost is far too often forgotten. We can, and must, do better.’
Worden is scheduled to be sentenced in February 2026 and faces up to five years in prison for lying to law enforcement.
