Space Crimes

What would happen if a crime was committed in space? This recent article (An astronaut may have committed the first space crime while aboard the International Space Station) had me thinking about how this unique situation could be used to bend laws and rules about committing crimes on Earth.

While this true story probably isn’t exciting enough on it’s own (Veteran astronaut and US Army lieutenant Anne McClain is accused of improperly accessing her estranged wife’s bank account while on a six-month mission aboard the International Space Station but McClain claims that she used the existing password and was never told that she couldn’t access their joint account.) I think it is an interesting idea to play with.

Would all the laws and rules on Earth apply in space? What would or could be different?

Or

What about sending prisoners with a life sentence to a space prison or could a sentence in a space prison be an alternative to the death penalty?

Or

How could an astronaut orchestrate a crime from space? Cyber crimes seems like a logical option.

Or

How about an astronaut who catches her or his spouse cheating and decides to liquidate their join assets ahead of a divorce filing.

Or

What about a criminal or group of criminals commissioning a private flight to the International Space Station to commit a bank heist?

Or

What is the crime is caught while the astronaut is in space? How would the other astronauts go about figuring out “Who did it?”? If they did figure it out, what happens next?

Or

An astronaut steals their spouses funds ahead of a divorce filing

Who wants to talk more about how you can use this idea in your current or next story?