NASA used money to settle the Columbia ship

The US Aerospace Agency (NASA) has spent more than $ 26 million on the family of seven astronauts killed after the disaster shuttle Columbia in the secretly concealed settlement for more than two years.

NASA recruited former FBI director William Webster, also a former federal judge, to act as mediator and counsel in the settlement outside this court.

This information was disclosed in a seven-page document to the Orlando Sentinel last month after a newspaper reporter asked for case information in 2005 and 2006 in accordance with the law of freedom of information. state (FOIA).

Columbia shuttle crew (Photo: Xinhuanet)

NASA was criticized for not announcing this arrangement earlier. However, Stephen L. Mcconnell, NASA's freedom of information official, said the agency did not deliberately delay the provision of such information.

In a response to a request from the Orlando Sentinel , NASA spokesman Allard Beutel spoke briefly about the settlement, citing the reasons for ensuring astronaut family privacy.

He said the settlement was taken from NASA's budget. However, Steven Aftergood, director of the secret government project of the American Association of Scientists, doesn't think so.'It's not NASA money. That's people's money, ' he said.

The disaster shuttle Columbia happened on 1-2-2003 when the ship broke down when returning to Earth. An investigation identified the ship's insulated foam pieces that damaged the ship's left wing, resulting in the death of all seven astronauts (including 6 Americans and 1 Israeli).

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