Astronaut Nowak is back in Houston

Astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak, who's a household name today after news broke about her plan to confront — or, police say, to kill — another woman, is back in Houston this morning as details emerge about what might have driven her to make a cross-country trip armed with a knife, rubber tubing and a BB gun.

According to the AP, Nowak's marriage ended weeks ago when she and her husband of 19 years separated. Before that, in November, a neighbor reported hearing dishes being thrown inside Nowak's house here and called the police, but there were no details about what ended up happening there. And finally, Nowak was arrested Monday at the Orlando airport after confronting Colleen Shipman (below, right), an Air Force captain Nowak apparently believed was a rival for her affection toward fellow astronaut Bill Oefelein (below, left). One thing that's clear: No one expected Nowak to do it. Friends and colleagues are describing her as a kind, caring, extremely disciplined person. "She was a mother before she was an astronaut. I mean, she really was into family life, and what's happened in the last few days has just been totally a shock. She is a really wonderful, good, caring person," former NASA flight surgeon Jon Clark told CNN yesterday. "You have to find forgiveness and love in your heart to get her through this."

Nowak's family isn't giving interviews — they issued a statement calling the story "a tremendous shock" — but Jonathan Rose, Nowak's brother-in-law, did talk with the Orlando Sentinel yesterday. "We're just trying to figure out how to get her the help she needs," Rose said.

So now, after being released from jail on $25,500 bail, Nowak's back in Houston. She's on 30-day leave from NASA and has a GPS tracking device on her ankle and orders not to travel farther east than Orange County, Florida (Shipman, who works at Patrick Air Force Base near Cape Canaveral on Florida's east coast, filed a restraining order against Nowak just to be sure). She has been charged with attempted kidnapping, attempted vehicle burglary with battery, destruction of evidence and battery, and also with attempted first-degree murder — a charge her lawyer took issue with. "In the imaginations of the police officers, they extend these facts out into areas where the facts can't be supported," attorney Donald Lykkebak said. But officials see it differently: "Murder was the plan," Florida Assistant State Attorney Amanda Cowan said yesterday.

Update: Officials said today that Nowak will be taken to the Johnson Space Center for psychological testing; also, observers are already speculating that Nowak's case won't hurt the space program overall. Sometimes, said Rocket Boys author Homer Hickam, astronauts just "do stupid things together."