My Take
William Oefelein is one of those figures who became famous for entirely the wrong reasons — and honestly, I feel a little bad for the guy. He piloted the STS-116 shuttle mission in December 2006, which is a genuinely impressive achievement: a Navy test pilot turned NASA astronaut who flew one of the most complex vehicles ever built. That should be his legacy. Instead, his name is forever attached to the 2007 Lisa Nowak affair, when a fellow astronaut drove hundreds of miles in a diaper to confront his girlfriend — making international headlines that had nothing to do with anything Oefelein himself did. He seemed to handle the chaos with quiet dignity, eventually left NASA, and rebuilt his life as a freelance adventure writer and photographer in Alaska. As comebacks go, trading the shuttle for wilderness storytelling is actually pretty cool.
Overview
William Anthony Oefelein (; born March 29, 1965) is an American freelance adventure writer and photographer and former NASA astronaut who, on his only spaceflight, piloted the STS-116 Space Shuttle mission. Oefelein gained media attention on February 5, 2007, when fellow astronaut Lisa Nowak was arrested in Florida and charged with attempting to kidnap his girlfriend, U.S. Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- William Oefelein
- Name (Japanese)
- ウィリアム・オーフェリン
- Reading
- うぃりあむ・おーふぇりん
- Born
- March 29, 1965 (age 61)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Aries / Snake
- Origin
- Fort Belvoir, Virginia, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- military officer / astronaut / aircraft pilot / engineer
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- West Anchorage High School
- University
- University of Tennessee
Awards & achievements
- Air Medal
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.