Hum Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- NASA paid $26.6 million to family members of the astronauts who died on the space shuttle Columbia in 2003, a newspaper reported Sunday, citing recently released documents. Documents obtained by the Orlando Sentinel through a federal Freedom of Information Act request show that former FBI Director William Webster helped negotiate out-of-court settlements with the families. NASA obtained money for the settlement through a congressional appropriation in 2004, NASA spokesman Allard Beutel said. Webster told the Sentinel that the families did not wish to discuss the matter after it was settled. ''The members of the families wanted this to be a private matter,'' he said. ''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 released documents did not note how much money each family received, but Jon Clark, husband of Columbia astronaut Laurel Clark, said the figures were on the ''low side'' of what families were seeking. He said parents, children and spouses were all compensated and astronauts with doctoral degrees received a bit more than those who held master's degrees. ''It wasn't a lot of money. A few million." The shuttle was damaged at liftoff. Searing gases penetrated the shuttle upon re-entry and it disintegrated over Texas. All seven astronauts aboard died. source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spenser.d Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 ... I would've said I feel sorry, but then they told me they didn't think a few million was very much, and I lost respect for them. -Spenser Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rohdekill Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 Personally, I wouldn't have compensated them at all. Say your dad is a police officer. The risk of getting killed is expected with the job. Your family accounts for that with life insurance to cover such a thing. Now, if a thug guns down the cop, I know of no police department that would cough up a million dollars for the family. Same with any other job...by accepting the well known risks and taking the job, you deserve no compensation. ** this has nothing to do with feeling sorry for the family or not. Just financial/job risk assessment. ** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smigit Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 Personally, I wouldn't have compensated them at all.Say your dad is a police officer. The risk of getting killed is expected with the job. Your family accounts for that with life insurance to cover such a thing. Now, if a thug guns down the cop, I know of no police department that would cough up a million dollars for the family. I basically agree that its expected that the job isnt necessarily safe and that while precautions are made theres no guarantees. I'm guessing alot of this was to do with the fact that NASA already had a publicity crisis on it's hands and didnt need any more damage caused by families speaking out against them too much. That said "millions" is alot of money and for that to be on the low side? EEP I hate to think what they were asking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NienorGT Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 wow... unless it's a major NASA fault, theres is no need to pay them that! If you do a dangerous work, it can happened. Even the Army don't do that.. And God know how mush people die in the Army... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hum Posted April 15, 2007 Author Share Posted April 15, 2007 I wonder how many of the 7 astronauts had Life insurance. :unsure: Could they even get insurance with the job of 'astronaut'. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony-inpo Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 He said parents, children and spouses were all compensated and astronauts with doctoral degrees received a bit more than those who held master's degrees. How the hell do you quantify that? A life is a life no matter the qualification. I suppose the only thing they'd say is Doctorates take longer and more money to get which could have cost the astronaut + spouse more money, but still though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toology Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 They shouldn't have received anything except their family member's pension. There is nothing routine about blasting people off into space; while they may try to avoid accidents as best they can the risk of fatalities is no stranger to the job. ''It wasn't a lot of money. A few million." A few million more than you deserved, apparently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v0ltage789 Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 I didn't know there was any survivors of the columbia tragedy :whistle: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.Markus Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 @v0ltage789: Thought the same thing myself, really misleading thread title! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macrosslover Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 wow alot of you are amazing saying they shouldn't have received anything. Alot of those people lost their primary income earner, so it's not beyond reason for them to get some money back that would make up for the loss of that person's income...assuming they would make something near that over a lifetime. they did the same thing at 9/11 and then people who were ceo's or what have you got a little more money than those who were just a janitor for example. The Orlando Sentinel also reported that two astronaut families had ordered preflight insurance policies through NASA, but the agency failed to obtain the additional coverage before the accident. All the families threatened to go public before the agency paid the two families the additional insurance, the newspaper said. so there was some of the families who did try to do the proper thing before the accident and unfortunately NASA dropped the ball on that particular incident. and for those of you who are knocking the guy who's saying it was only a few million, the article doesn't necessarily say that he got a few million personally he could mean that it was a few million TOTAL for all of the families. it was 7 astronauts, so even if you divide that up to just 1 surviving family member each person got rough 3.2 or whatever million dollars. however he says that everybody in the family got money so that would have given each individual person even less money, maybe around 1 million dollars per person. Once again with any lawsuit, I'm sure lawyers were involved, although the article didn't specifically mention them, and you all know from previous experience that lawyers see a huge amount of any settlement equal to their suffering. :rolleyes: so once again each person could have actually only got something like 600k totaling a few million for all of the familes and the lawyers could have gotten the rest. It's debatable if NASA should have paid the money out at all, but don't criticize the families just because of 1 comment that nobody knows the full details about. and yeah thread title should be changed to surviving family or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obsolete_power Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 Wait....who made the damn title?? For a second there I thought you were implying that there were survivors... And about getting paid, since it was a fault of NASA's engineers overlooking the ceramic tile problem, the astronauts' families need to be compensated in some way by the people that ultimately killed them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samboini Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 Maccroslover, it's called life insurance. If I was an astronaut, I would make an effort to buy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macrosslover Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 Maccroslover, it's called life insurance. If I was an astronaut, I would make an effort to buy it. you did read all of the article didn't you? some families did try to get life insurance on them. because of their job, it's possible that the only way they could get life insurance was through NASA and not as a private citizen. Without either us actually being astronauts I thought we know how difficulty it is for them to get something like that on themselves. that said if the astronauts just simply ignored the insurance option, that's their fault and should be a lesson to future astronauts, however that still doens't mean NASA should take the cruel route many of you are saying and not give their children and loved ones anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spenser.d Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 wow alot of you are amazing saying they shouldn't have received anything. Alot of those people lost their primary income earner, so it's not beyond reason for them to get some money back that would make up for the loss of that person's income...assuming they would make something near that over a lifetime. they did the same thing at 9/11 and then people who were ceo's or what have you got a little more money than those who were just a janitor for example. I understand that, but the sheer amount of money they did get, and then to say it's not enough is incredible. Most people won't make a few million in their lifetime and they get by just fine. so there was some of the families who did try to do the proper thing before the accident and unfortunately NASA dropped the ball on that particular incident.and for those of you who are knocking the guy who's saying it was only a few million, the article doesn't necessarily say that he got a few million personally he could mean that it was a few million TOTAL for all of the families. it was 7 astronauts, so even if you divide that up to just 1 surviving family member each person got rough 3.2 or whatever million dollars. however he says that everybody in the family got money so that would have given each individual person even less money, maybe around 1 million dollars per person. It was $26 million for all the families - each family got a few million. No matter how you split it, it's a lot for just one family. Once again with any lawsuit, I'm sure lawyers were involved, although the article didn't specifically mention them, and you all know from previous experience that lawyers see a huge amount of any settlement equal to their suffering. :rolleyes: so once again each person could have actually only got something like 600k totaling a few million for all of the familes and the lawyers could have gotten the rest. I wasn't aware this was actually a lawsuit... The FBI director that took care of the out-of-court settlement probably took the place of lawyers. It's debatable if NASA should have paid the money out at all, but don't criticize the families just because of 1 comment that nobody knows the full details about.and yeah thread title should be changed to surviving family or something. I will criticize them. If they think a few million is chump change, they can give it to me and I'll put it to good use. NASA giving them a few million at all is nice enough - they don't need to be greedy about it. -Spenser Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomoko Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 Survivors means family members. Nothing wrong with the title. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macrosslover Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 I wasn't aware this was actually a lawsuit... The FBI director that took care of the out-of-court settlement probably took the place of lawyers.I will criticize them. If they think a few million is chump change, they can give it to me and I'll put it to good use. NASA giving them a few million at all is nice enough - they don't need to be greedy about it. -Spenser yeah you make a good point the FBI director did help with the out of court settlement, but even medidation sessions out of court still involve lawyers. Like i said before I don't know for a fact they were involved but the FBI director would be looking out for NASA's best interest not the families, which is why most would probably bring a lawyer. just because it's out of court doesn't mean lawyers aren't involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpha Drone Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 ... and how much did NASA pay to the families of the victims of the Challenger explosion in 1986? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malisk Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 (edited) ... and how much did NASA pay to the families of the victims of the Challenger explosion in 1986? The settlement terms remain secret, but published reports at the time said the families shared more than $7.7 million, with Morton Thiokol paying 60% and the federal government 40%. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-0...-lawsuits_x.htm (that's probably $7.7M+ without taking inflation into account as it usually isn't) Thiokol is a rocket and propulsion system manufacturer. edit: if "uninflated", it would be around "$14M+" now Edited April 15, 2007 by Jugalator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpha Drone Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-0...-lawsuits_x.htm(that's probably $7.7M+ without taking inflation into account as it usually isn't) Thiokol is a rocket and propulsion system manufacturer. Thanks for the information! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrCobra Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 NASA giving them a few million at all is nice enough - they don't need to be greedy about it.-Spenser Actually it was the tax payers of this country who paid them. NASA obtained money for the settlement through a congressional appropriation in 2004, NASA spokesman Allard Beutel said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p858snake Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 Personally, I wouldn't have compensated them at all.Say your dad is a police officer. The risk of getting killed is expected with the job. Your family accounts for that with life insurance to cover such a thing. Now, if a thug guns down the cop, I know of no police department that would cough up a million dollars for the family. Same with any other job...by accepting the well known risks and taking the job, you deserve no compensation. ** this has nothing to do with feeling sorry for the family or not. Just financial/job risk assessment. ** They get paid extra and thats called "danger pay" and it gets put into a separate a/c Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neztea Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 They are the pioneers of space exploration. Even if they are compensated, their names will go down in history. Its these people that can bring forth a future of space exploration and civilization. :0 Neztea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baptist Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 ...I would've said I feel sorry, but then they told me they didn't think a few million was very much, and I lost respect for them. -Spenser x2... Bastards.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majortom1981 Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 This might sound very mean but why do the family members get anything. The astronauts certainly know what they are doing is extremely dangerous so wh yshould the family member s get paid anything? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts