HOUSTON — The former wife of a NASA astronaut pleaded guilty on Thursday to lying to law enforcement, according to U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei.

Summer Worden, 50, faces up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine for the false 2019 claim about her then-estranged wife, Anne McClain.

In March 2019, Worden told investigators that the astronaut had guessed the password and illegally accessed her bank account while McClain was deployed to the International Space Station. Worden, a former Air Force intelligence officer, said the astronaut had committed identity theft, despite not seeing any indication of moved or spent funds, the New York Times reported.

The case became the first criminal allegation against someone in space.

McClain said from the beginning that there was a

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