Widow of Challenger Pilot Cannot Sue U.S. for His Death, Court Says

The widow of Challenger astronaut Michael J. Smith cannot sue the government for $1.5 billion in damages because her husband was on military duty when the space shuttle exploded, killing him and six others, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Patricia Fawsett cited earlier court decisions holding that military personnel or their dependents could not sue the government for injury or death while on active service.

Smith, the Challenger pilot, was a Navy captain who was assigned to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1981.

“Smith’s death occurred during activity incident to his military service,” the judge said in removing the federal government as a defendant in the suit filed by Jane J. Smith.

The judge also agreed with government lawyers who argued that military personnel “receive generous statutory veterans’ disability and death benefits.”

Jane Smith’s lawyers argued that her husband was not on regular military assignment and had no military duties at the time of his death.

The order, filed this week in U.S. District Court in Orlando, maintained Morton Thiokol Inc. as the principal defendant in the civil suit. Morton Thiokol built the solid-fuel booster rocket blamed for the explosion that destroyed the shuttle shortly after liftoff at Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Jan. 28, 1986.