CHICAGO — Less than a day after learning that his mother had been killed in an auto accident near her Lombard, Ill., home, astronaut Daniel Tani was swabbing surfaces on the international space station, testing a handheld germ-detection device.
He was thankful for the distraction.
“I’m happy to help out and do what I can today,” the flight engineer told scientists at the Johnson Space Center on Thursday, according to audio provided by NASA. “I’m here and eager to get the science done. So it’s good to be working today.”
His brother, Steven Tani, of Cupertino, Calif., said he had been in contact with Daniel by e-mail since their mother’s death.
“He’s fully professional as an astronaut and knows he has a job to do,” Steven Tani said. “NASA is leaving it to him how much of his mission tasks he wants to do right now. Dan is a very strong person. I believe he’s coping with this situation very well.”
Rose Tani, 90, was killed Wednesday when she drove her Honda Civic around a school bus stopped at railroad tracks, Lombard police said. A 50-car Union Pacific train smashed the vehicle and pushed it 50 to 100 feet.
Daniel Tani — who received the news of his mother’s death Wednesday during a video chat with his wife and a NASA doctor — is the first of nearly 300 NASA astronauts to be alerted of a family tragedy during a mission, NASA spokeswoman Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters said.
Although it was NASA’s first time facing such a drama, the agency was affected by something similar in 1995. During a mission on the Russian outpost Mir, the cosmonaut commander of the mission went into a state of depression after learning of his mother’s unexpected death.
Although he continued working, Vladimir Dezhurov did not eat or talk for two or three days, said Norman Thagard, the NASA astronaut on the three-man crew.
After the flight, Thagard said, NASA began asking crew members if they would want to be told of tragic news while in space.
Thagard said Tani’s grief is unlikely to disrupt the mission but could complicate delicate assignments, such as repair work.
“Much of life on a space station is routine,” he said. “But if you had some critical, life-threatening activity, under the circumstances, you might consider using someone else or delaying it.”
Funeral services for Rose Tani will be Sunday. Steven Tani said NASA might provide an audio feed. The soonest Tani can return from space is late January.
Steve Tani said his brother was “especially close” to their mother, who raised Daniel alone after her husband’s death.
Rose Tani often looked skyward to see whether she could glimpse Daniel Tani’s shuttle in orbit, Steven Tani said.
