August 24, 2007—All sides gathered before an Orlando judge today to argue pre-trial motions in the Lisa Nowak case. With TV satellite trucks so plentiful that they blocked the left hand lane of Orange Avenue downtown, it seems a waste of time to ask if you’ve heard of the case of the former NASA astronaut accused of attacking a Brevard County woman as the result of an apparent love triangle that left two Astronauts fired by NASA. This shot is of Nowak in orbit aboard Space Shuttle Discovery during the second flight following the since the Columbia disaster in 2003.

Both sides, represented by defense attorney Donald Lykkebak and prosecutor Pamela Davis, will be heard as the trial proceeds in September, as the judicial system works toward a proper resolution of the charges of attempted kidnapping and battery.

One witness that probably didn’t make the news because most reporters may not have known his name, was Astronaut Piers Sellers. He was one of the spacewalkers on Nowak’s only mission in orbit aboard Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-121. Sellers floated outside in a three hundred pound spacesuit while Nowak called the shots from inside the Shuttle. The jockeying between the defense and prosecution was expected during this pre-trial hearing. Sellers’ appearance was not, or rather, not highly publicized. He testified on behalf of Nowak’s character, and how during his spacewalks, his life was literally in her hands aboard the Shuttle.

Aside from NASA Chief astronaut Steve Lindsey, who was also Commander of Nowak’s flight on STS-121, Sellers is the only astronaut I’m aware of, who’s spoken publicly in defense of Nowak. Not that anyone’s word can, or should, overcome a person’s alleged misdeeds. But, it was interesting to see Sellers on the witness stand.

Photos courtesy of NASA