Former astronaut Lisa Nowak’s Navy career is over

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The Navy has ended the military career of former astronaut Lisa Nowak, who lost her NASA job over a bizarre airport attack on a romantic rival.

A Navy panel of three admirals voted unanimously late Thursday to discharge Nowak and downgrade her rank from captain to commander.

The newspaper Florida Today reports that Nowak didn’t comment on the decision at the panel’s meeting at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station.

Nowak was sentenced to a year on probation last November after pleading guilty to third-degree felony burglary and misdemeanor battery.

Nowak confronted her romantic rival in the parking lot of Orlando International Airport in February 2007 after driving from Houston. Shipman had begun dating Nowak’s love interest.