It Began With a Challenge

Laurel Clark was an outgoing Navy flight surgeon living with her family in Pensacola, Fla., in the mid-1990s when she was encouraged by her husband to apply for the demanding astronaut program.

Jonathan Clark, a neurologist then serving in the Navy himself, was thrilled when his wife was selected, friends and relatives said.

“He was very proud of her,” said Lisa Zeddies, girlfriend of Laurel Clark’s brother, Jonathan. “And she gave 110% to everything she did.”

Clark, a Navy commander, was making her first spaceflight, more than six months after she was originally scheduled for a mission. Her impressive career included diving rescues, medical evacuations from submarines and time with the Marines’ night attack Harrier squadron. She earned three Navy commendation medals.

But she always found time for her large, close-knit family. In fact, the only thing Clark ever said she regretted about joining the space program in 1996 was the time it took her away from Jonathan and their young son, Ian, now 8.

The night before Columbia’s scheduled landing, she e-mailed relatives, describing her sense of wonder at the sight of Earth and the stars, said her aunt, Betty Haviland. “She said she was in awe at seeing our magnificent planet and that she felt blessed to be up there representing her country on this scientific mission.”

Her brother, Jonathan Salton, the youngest of four siblings of whom Clark was the eldest, said many of her family members were in Florida on Jan. 16 to watch her soar into space. They were a little worried, Salton said, especially Ian, who confided to his grandmother that he was eager to watch the launch but wished his mom didn’t have to be the one to go.

Clark always reassured family members that NASA had “an aggressive safety program. To me, there’s a lot of different things that we do during life that could potentially harm us, and I choose not to stop doing those things.”

Clark, who was born in Ames, Iowa, moved with her family to various cities as a child, finally settling in Racine, Wis. She graduated from high school there and considered the city her hometown. In high school, friends said, she was almost impossibly good at everything.

“The joke was that she got straight A’s in everything but typing,” said classmate Susan Shanahan.

As she got older and the accomplishments grew -- medical degree, deep-sea diving, naval flight surgeon and, finally, astronaut -- her friend’s impression shifted. “Amazed is not even the word,” said Shanahan, whose mother is close to Clark’s. “It was superhuman.”

While preparing for the shuttle launch, Clark, 41, did not forget her alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she earned an undergraduate degree in zoology and a doctorate in medicine. A blue-eyed teddy bear made in Wisconsin, wearing a jacket emblazoned with the logo of the university’s College of Letters and Science, was with her on the shuttle.

Shanahan said her mother, who attended the launch in Florida, called Saturday morning, distraught. She said they both thought immediately of Ian.

“This is the part that breaks my heart the most. This little boy is just a year older than my son. I talked to other friends from high school today and many of us are the mothers of young sons, and it is so hard to think about her not getting to see him grow up,” Shanahan said.