NASA $26.6 million Columbia payout not secret anymore

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 16 April 2007 00:05

Science - Space

A secret payout of US $26.6 million to the families of the seven Columbia astronauts who died when the shuttle broke up upon re-entry in early 2003 has been exposed by the Orlando Sentinel.

The Orlando Sentinel has reported that a payment of US $26.6 million to the families of the seven Columbia astronauts was kept secret for two and a half years, and exposed only by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

The FOIA request yielded seven pages which unfortunately didn’t contain much information, although it was reported that NASA used the services of former FBI Director William Webster, also a former judge, as a mediator between NASA and the families concerned.

Webster, who is now a consulting partner with the law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy was reported by the Sentinel to have said that: “The members of the [survivors'] families wanted this to be a private matter. 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.”

NASA spokesman Allard Beute also wrote to the Orlando Sentinel to say that: “The Columbia astronauts were our friends and co-workers. 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.”

It appears that NASA also decided that settling the case with families would be better than going through a lawsuit, with Dr John Clark, widower of astronaut Laurel Blair Salton Clark, saying that NASA showed a ‘deferential’ attitude. Clark said that: “We were in a state of shock. To go the lawsuit route, it's very painful and very protracted. So we settled.”
 
However Clark was also reported to have said that he has lived in a state of "suspended animation" after the accident and is rebuilding his life, and that the NASA settlement means little. He said: “Give me my wife back, keep the money and we'll call it even.”

The Space Shuttle Columbia, on its 28th mission (STS-107) disintegrated over Texas on Feburary 1, 2003, due to a piece of foam insulation around the size of a small briefcase breaking off during launch and striking the leading edge of the left wing.

During the flight, some NASA engineers suspected damage but were unable to get other NASA staff to check the space shuttle while in orbit as it was thought little could be done to fix the problem if indeed it existed.

The crew of the STS-107 Columbia mission were:

* 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.