Families of Doomed Shuttle Crew Will Collect Millions : Rocket Firm Joins U.S. Settlement

The Justice Department said today it has reached confidential, out-of-court settlements worth at least $750,000 each with the families of schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe and three other astronauts who died in the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger last Jan. 28.

Under a separate agreement with the government, Morton Thiokol Inc., the manufacturer of the solid rocket boosters used on the Challenger, will make a “substantial contribution” to the sums paid the four families, the department said.

That agreement did not constitute an admission of negligence by Morton Thiokol, according to the department. A presidential commission blamed faulty joints on the boosters for triggering the fireball that engulfed the spaceship shortly after launch.

Future Action Barred

The settlements involving the four families preclude any future legal actions against the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or its contractors.

Compensation for the three other astronauts killed in the accident, including two whose families have filed legal claims, has yet to be resolved.

Those who accepted the government’s offer were the families of McAuliffe, mission commander Francis R. Scobee, mission specialist Ellison S. Onizuka and payload specialist Gregory B. Jarvis.

The Justice Department said the settlements “involve payments over an extended period of time” and “are designed to provide adequate financial security for the families of these crew members.”

Terms Confidential

“At the request of the families, the amounts and terms of the settlements will remain confidential,” the department said.

It was understood, however, that the settlements required final approval by Deputy Atty. Gen. Arnold I. Burns, the No. 2 official in the Justice Department--meaning under department guidelines they were worth a minimum of $750,000 per family.

Scobee, a former Air Force test pilot, was an employee of NASA. Onizuka was a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force. Jarvis was a former Air Force engineer assigned to the Challenger crew as a representative of Hughes Aircraft Co. And McAuliffe, a high school teacher in New Hampshire, was on the crew as America’s first teacher in space.

In Concord, N.H., Steve McAuliffe, a lawyer, declined comment on the settlement for himself and his two children.

Three Others Unresolved

Still unresolved is possible compensation for the families of Challenger pilot Michael John Smith and mission specialists Judith A. Resnik and Ronald E. McNair.

Smith’s family has filed a $15-million claim against NASA, and McNair’s family has filed suit against Morton Thiokol. No formal claim has been filed on behalf of Resnik, who was single.

McAuliffe’s family was entitled to a $1-million insurance payment on her life.

The question of lawsuits by the others was complicated by a tangle of varying regulations and laws covering the government’s liability.

Families of those on active military duty were limited to compensation ordinarily granted to members of the armed forces who die in the line of duty.

NASA’s liability under law is limited to $25,000 in most cases.

In the only other similar case, the 1967 launch pad fire in which three astronauts died aboard an Apollo spacecraft, the widow of mission commander Virgil Grissom waited four years before filing a lawsuit.

She settled out of court with rocket builder North American Rockwell for $350,000 and the manufacturer also paid out $150,000 each to the families of the two other crew members, even though they never sued.