For the second time in as many years, an Ames family endured a personal loss amid a national tragedy.

One of the seven crew members killed in Saturday’s Columbia spacecraft disaster was an Ames native. It was the first space flight for mission specialist Laurel Clark, a 41-year-old U.S. Navy commander and flight surgeon.

Clark still had family in Iowa — her uncle and aunt, the Rev. Douglas and Betty Haviland, and 96-year-old grandmother, Mary Haviland, reside in Ames.

The astronaut’s death is not the first public tragedy for the Havilands — their son, Timothy, died in the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

Clark was married to Jonathan Clark and had a 8-year-old son, Eaian. Both were in Florida awaiting the shuttle’s return at the time of the tragedy, when Columbia apparently disintegrated as it descended over central Texas, about 38 miles in the sky and only 15 minutes from landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Six other astronauts were also presumed dead.

Born in Ames, Clark’s father was an ISU student, and her parents lived in Pammel Court until Clark was 2 years old. Clark’s family moved from Ames to Racine, Wis., which she considered her hometown.

In an interview Saturday, the Havilands said they learned of the shuttle disaster early Saturday morning through television news and reports from family members.

“We knew she was due to come down [Saturday] morning,” Betty Haviland said. “We turned on CNN to see if they had any information, then our son, Bruce, called and said they had lost contact [with the space shuttle].”

The Havilands described their niece as an ambitious and courageous scientist who felt fortunate for the opportunity to perform scientific research in space. Clark was conducting a number of biological experiments on board Columbia, including cultivating prostate cancer cells.

Clark earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked her way through medical school there by joining the U.S. Navy, Douglas Haviland said.

“She had goals in mind and really zeroed in on them,” he said. “She applied to be an astronaut in 1996 … she was very determined to get up into space.”

“She was proud to be representing her country,” Betty Haviland added. “She looked at this opportunity as a frontier experience.”

Betty Haviland said Timothy had encouraged and supported Clark in her mission to become an astronaut, and had planned to attend Clark’s shuttle launch.

“Tim had wanted to go [to Florida for the launch],” Betty Haviland said. “But of course, 9/11 got rid of that idea.”

Watching the repeating images of shuttle debris falling to Earth on television was reminiscent of watching the footage of the terrorist attacks, Betty Haviland said.

“As soon as [we] saw that debris field, it became pretty clear what had happened,” she said. “We have the sense of d‚ja vu, as you can imagine.”

Douglas Haviland, a retired Episcopalian minister, said the family’s faith has strengthened them during times of grief.

“Faith is important — we have to lean on it in times like this,” Douglas Haviland said. “Life brings hurt and tragedy … but the public nature of these events adds a different dimension.”

It had been less than one day since the Havilands had heard from Clark via an e-mail the astronaut had sent to her family. The message detailed Clark’s space journey and expressed her excitement about returning to Earth.

“Hello from above our magnificent planet Earth,” Clark wrote in the e-mail. “The perspective is truly awe-inspiring.”

Betty Haviland said the family believes they are lucky to have heard from Clark one last time before the shuttle tragedy.

“I feel blessed that we were able to hear from her just yesterday,” she said. “We know she died with a sense of mission.”

— NASA and The Associated Press contributed to this story.