A U.S. astronaut would be charged with attempted first-degree murder charges for allegedly attacking a love rival, it was reported on Tuesday.

Navy Capt. Lisa Marie Nowak, who flew last summer on a shuttle mission to the International Space Station, allegedly attacked a woman that she considered her rival for the love of another astronaut, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Police in Orlando, Florida, were in the process of filing the charge against Nowak, the paper quoted Florida authorities as saying.

Nowak, who was scheduled to have been released today after being granted bail on earlier battery and attempted kidnapping charges, will now remain in custody in light of the more serious charges, said the report.

Nowak, 43, was arrested early Monday after she sprayed her love rival, 30-year-old Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman, in a parking lot in Orlando in an attempt to kidnap her, the report said, quoting a police affidavit.

Nowak drove nearly 1,000 miles from her home in Houston to intercept Shipman, who was just arriving at Orlando International Airport, according to the report.

The arrest "was an embarrassment for America's space agency, which for nearly five decades has obsessively portrayed its astronauts as paragons of personal integrity", the report noted.

Police said Nowak, who is married with three children, considered Shipman a romantic rival for Navy Cmdr. William A. Oefelein, 41, who flew on the most recent shuttle mission in November.

Nowak was arrested on felony charges of attempted kidnapping, attempted vehicle burglary with battery, and misdemeanor charges of destruction of evidence and simple battery, according to Orlando Police Sgt. Kathryn Sullivan.

James Hartsfield, a NASA spokesman at Johnson Space Center in Houston, said this was the first case he was aware of in which an active-duty astronaut had been charged with a felony.

He said that Nowak's status as an astronaut "is unchanged; I cannot speculate on what may happen in the future."

Hartsfield said all astronauts go through rigorous psychological and physical testing. But, he said, "we don't track the personal lives of the individuals that work for the agency."

Editor: Yan