NASA Paid $26.6M to Families of Columbia Disaster Astronauts

NASA reportedly paid $26.6 million to the families of the seven astronauts who died aboard space shuttle Columbia in the 2003 tragedy, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The documents, kept secret for two and a half years, were obtained through a federal Freedom of Information Act request.


The request led to the release of just seven pages, which give scarce information. The U.S. space agency apparently recruited former FBI Director William Webster, who is was also a judge, to act as a mediator between the NASA and the families.

"The members of the [survivors'] families wanted this to be a private matter," said Webster, a consulting partner in Washington with the international law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy. "They were healing, and they were ready to discuss, properly, their rights. . . . Everyone felt it had a better chance of coming together without seeing their name in lights."

"The Columbia astronauts were our friends and co-workers," NASA spokesman Allard Beute wrote to the Orlando Sentinel. "Our concern always has been with the crew's families and their loss, and as a result NASA didn't announce details of the settlement in an effort to protect the personal privacy of the Columbia families."

One survivor of a tragedy's victim told the newspaper that NASA showed deference by not allowing a lawsuit in a hard period for the astronauts' families. "We were in a state of shock," he said. "To go the lawsuit route, it's very painful and very protracted. So we settled," said Dr. Jon Clark, widower of astronaut Laurel Blair Salton Clark.

The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster occurred on February 1, 2003, when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, shortly before concluding its 28th mission, STS-107.

The loss of the Columbia was caused by damage sustained during launch when a piece of foam insulation the size of a small briefcase broke off the main propellant tank under the aerodynamic forces of launch. The debris struck the leading edge of the left wing on the number 8 reinforced-carbon-carbon (RCC) tile, damaging the Shuttle's thermal protection system (TPS). While Columbia was still in orbit, some engineers suspected damage, but NASA managers limited the investigation on the grounds that little could be done even if problems were found.

The crew of STS-107 was:

* Commander: Rick D. Husband, a US Air Force colonel and mechanical engineer, who piloted a previous shuttle during the first docking with the International Space Station (STS-96).
* Pilot: William C. McCool, a US Navy commander
* Payload Commander: Michael P. Anderson, a US Air Force lieutenant colonel and physicist who was in charge of the science mission.
* Payload Specialist: Ilan Ramon, a colonel in the Israeli Air Force and the first Israeli astronaut.
* Mission Specialist: Kalpana Chawla, an Indian-born aerospace engineer on her second space mission.
* Mission Specialist: David M. Brown, a US Navy captain trained as an aviator and flight surgeon. Brown worked on a number of scientific experiments.
* Mission Specialist: Laurel Clark, a US Navy captain and flight surgeon. Clark worked on a number of biological experiments.

On March 26 the United States House of Representatives' Science Committee approved funds for the construction of a memorial at Arlington National Cemetery for the STS-107 crew. A similar memorial was built at the cemetery for the last crew of Space Shuttle Challenger. On October 28, 2003, the names of the astronauts were added to the Astronaut Memorial at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

The landing site of the Mars rover Spirit was named Columbia Memorial Station by NASA, and a complex of hills east of the landers was dubbed the Columbia Hills. The Spirit lander included a memorial plaque to the Columbia crew mounted on the back of its high gain antenna.