Couple in Lisa Nowak case set to marry

ORLANDO, Fla., July 10 (UPI) -- Colleen Shipman and Billy Oefelein, victims in the kidnapping plot allegedly formed by former U.S. astronaut Lisa Nowak, say they are getting married.

Shipman and Oefelein announced their June 20 engagement in their hometown newspapers and are planning on a wedding in Pennsylvania in 2010, The Orlando Sentinel said Friday.

"That night, Billy O. retrieved a ring he had hidden in the fishing box and proposed to his love on bended knee," the couple announced in the Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News and Beaver County (Pa.) Times.

The couple was thrust into the media spotlight in 2007 when Nowak, a NASA mission specialist on a 2006 space shuttle flight, traveled to Orlando International Airport with an alleged plan to attack and kidnap Shipman.

The Anchorage Daily News said Nowak, who previously dated fellow astronaut Oefelein, is set to go to trial starting Dec. 7 on charges of attempted kidnapping, burglary with assault and misdemeanor battery.

Nowak is facing a possible life prison sentence if convicted, the Daily News said. A pretrial hearing for Nowak has been scheduled for Nov. 10 by Orange County Circuit Judge Marc Lubet, FloridaToday.com reported.