A bitter Kansas divorcee will be imprisoned for lying that her astronaut ex-wife had hacked her bank account – even though her victim was orbiting the Earth aboard the International Space Station at the time.
Summer Worden, 51, was sentenced to three months behind bars on Thursday for making false claims about spacewoman Anne McClain during a bitter divorce and custody battle involving the couple’s then six-year-old son.
The youngster is only biologically-related to Worden.
Worden, a former US Air Force intelligence officer, began lying in July 2019, a month after McClain returned to Earth from her 204-day mission aboard the ISS, which orbits Earth about 250 miles from the surface.
Investigators subsequently discovered that McClain could not have accessed Worden’s bank account at the time she was accused of doing so because she was in space.
A forensic analysis of the bank account found that the account had been opened in April 2018 and shared by Worden and McClain until January 2019.
With their relationship deteriorating, Worden changed the password to the joint account, locking McClain out of it.
Worden’s lies about her ex-wife could have seen her prosecuted for bank fraud, identity theft or embezzlement.
She was later exposed and admitted making false, fictitious and fraudulent statements and representations to law enforcement during a November 2025 court hearing.
Summer Worden (right) has been sentenced to three months in federal prison for falsely claiming that her then-wife, Anne McClain (left), illegally accessed her bank account
Worden claimed McClain, an astronaut and an army veteran, guessed the bank account password while on board the International Space Station in 2019
McClain denied the allegations and was cleared of any wrongdoing by the Department of Justice in April 2020. Worden’s claims were made while the couple was divorcing and engaged in a custody dispute over their son (pictured with McClain)
The International Space Station orbits around Earth about 250 miles above the surface
‘Investigators also determined Worden had granted her spouse access to her bank records, including login credentials, as early as 2015,’ the DOJ said in a statement.
McClain’s attorney told The New York Times in 2019 that she had checked the account to check on the status of their joint finances and had never been told by Worden that she could not access the account.
In April 2020, McClain was cleared of any wrongdoing by the DOJ, which also unsealed an indictment against Worden around this time.
The DOJ said Worden continued lying about McClain well after an internal investigation also found no evidence of her tampering with the bank account.
‘Even after an internal investigation exonerated the former spouse, Worden continued promoting the false claim to news outlets and hired a media consultant to amplify the claim. The evidence further showed Worden publicly released her former spouse’s personal information,’ the DOJ said in a statement.
Worden remains out on bond but is expected to report to a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility to begin her sentence ‘in the near future.’
She will also be required to submit to two years of supervised release and pay $210,000 in restitution.
