Shuttle Pilot’s Widow Seeks $1.5 Billion

Alleging a “conspiracy of silence and deceit,” in the building of space shuttle rocket boosters, the widow of Challenger pilot Michael J. Smith filed a $1.5-billion lawsuit today that also demands that Morton Thiokol Inc. be barred from further work on the shuttle program.

The suit, filed in federal district court in Orlando, Fla., asks $500 million in actual damages from three defendants and $1 billion in punitive damages from Morton Thiokol for “reckless disregard for human life.”

Smith was one of seven crew members who died when the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after leaving the launch pad on Jan., 28, 1986. His widow, Jane Smith, earlier had filed a $15.1-million claim against the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and had negotiated with Morton Thiokol. The negotiations obviously fell through.

Ignored Problems, Suit Says

The complaint said Morton Thiokol ignored a history of problems with shuttle rocket joints and warnings by its own engineers “for the sole purpose of protecting its monopoly in the supply of SRBs (solid rocket boosters) to NASA and its very lucrative SRB contract with NASA, a business interest which was worth billions of dollars to Thiokol.”

In addition to the rocket builder, the defendants are the United States and Lawrence B. Mulloy, who had been manager of NASA’s solid rocket booster program at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

The families of teacher Christa McAuliffe and three of the other astronauts killed in the explosion accepted confidential financial settlements from NASA and Morton Thiokol in December, reportedly more than $1 million per family.