A couple rocketed into the public eye by the antics of a former astronaut are to get married, a lawyer said.

The arrest of an astronaut on an attempted murder charge has not distracted the crew of an upcoming space shuttle mission, even though she had been scheduled to be part of the flight’s ground team, the shuttle’s commander said.

A former Nasa inspector has been accused of lying about inspecting crucial parts on the space shuttle Discovery before and after the Columbia disaster that killed seven astronauts and grounded the entire orbiter fleet.