NASA paid pounds 13million to families of the seven astronauts who died on the space shuttle Columbia in 2003, it was revealed yesterday.

For decades, engineers worked behind the gates of a sprawling plant in this blue-collar city, designing and building parts for America's space program including the shuttle Columbia.

By Christine Rappleye, The Beaumont Enterprise, Texas Apr. 5--A picture of late astronaut Laurel Clark, who was on the Columbia mission, shows her smiling. On her left ring finger is what appears to be a gold wedding band.

A little-known East Texas mystery about missing jewelry worn by Laurel Clark, one of seven astronauts who perished in NASA's 2003 shuttle Columbia accident, deepened Wednesday amid a bid by Washington lawmakers to have the agency's politically embattled inspector general dismissed.

By Traci Watson WASHINGTON -- The top watchdog at NASA squelched a public plea for help in finding a ring reportedly taken from the remains of an astronaut who died aboard space shuttle Columbia in 2003, according to a federal investigative report made available Tuesday.