Recently , the first collisional family was discovered in the Kuiper belt . The parent body of this family , Haumea , is one of the largest objects in the Kuiper belt and is orbited by two satellites . It has been proposed that the Haumea family was created from dispersed fragments that resulted from a giant impact . This proposed origin of the Haumea family is however in conflict with the observed velocity dispersion between the family members ( \sim 140 ~ { } m/s ) which is significantly less than the escape velocity from Haumea ’ s surface ( \sim 900 ~ { } m/s ) . In this paper we propose a different formation scenario for Haumea ’ s collisional family . In our scenario the family members are ejected while in orbit around Haumea . This scenario , therfore , gives naturally rise to a lower velocity dispersion among the family members than expected from direct ejection from Haumea ’ s surface . In our scenario Haumea ’ s giant impact forms a single moon that tidally evolves outward until it suffers a destructive collision from which the family is created . We show that this formation scenario yields a velocity dispersion of \sim 190 m / s among the family members which is in good agreement with the observations . We discuss an alternative scenario that consists of the formation and tidal evolution of several satellites that are ejected by collisions with unbound Kuiper belt objects . However , the formation of the Haumea family in this latter way is difficult to reconcile with the large abundance of Kuiper belt binaries . We therefore favor forming the family by a destructive collision of a single moon of Haumea . The probability for Haumea ’ s initial giant impact in todays Kuiper belt is less than 10 ^ { -3 } . In our scenario , however , Haumea ’ s giant impact can occur before the excitation of the Kuiper belt and the ejection of the family members afterwards . This has the advantage that one can preserve the dynamical coherence of the family and explain Haumea ’ s original giant impact , which is several orders of magnitude more likely to have occurred in the primordial dynamically cold Kuiper belt compared to the dynamically excited Kuiper belt today .