By LINDA HERRIDGE, NASA’s John F. Kennedy Area Heart
NASA’s Kennedy Area Heart in Florida paid tribute to the crew members of area shuttle Columbia, in addition to different astronauts who’ve perished within the line of responsibility, throughout NASA’s Annual Day of Remembrance.
The middle’s senior administration and visitors attended the ceremony on the Area Mirror Memorial on the Kennedy Area Heart Customer Complicated on Jan. 26.
“In a group that regularly commemorates the milestones and achievements made doable by means of the teamwork and contributions of so many, at the moment is a special sort of observance, a day to acknowledge and honor those that misplaced their lives in pursuit of information, and people losses are heavy,” mentioned Kennedy Area Heart Director Janet Petro.
NASA and the world misplaced seven courageous explorers 20 years in the past, on Feb. 1, 2003, when shuttle Columbia broke aside throughout re-entry. Crew members aboard had been Rick D. Husband, mission commander; William C. McCool, pilot; Michael P. Anderson, payload commander; Kalpana Chawla, flight engineer; David M. Brown and Laurel B. Clark, mission specialists; and Ilan Ramon, payload specialist from the Israeli Area Company.
Columbia launched on Jan. 16, 2003, at 10:39 a.m. EST from Kennedy’s Launch Complicated 39A, carrying the seven astronauts. The shuttle’s payload bay contained the primary Spacehab Analysis Double Module. The 16-day mission was devoted to a mixture of life and bodily sciences. On Feb. 1, throughout a descent for touchdown at Kennedy at an altitude of 203,000 toes over north central Texas, a breach within the thermal safety system on Columbia’s left wing resulted within the lack of the car and crew.
“This 12 months marks the twentieth anniversary of the lack of the crew of Columbia throughout re-entry of STS-107,” Petro mentioned. “For some, that looks as if a lifetime. For others, it could seem to be a second. However for our company, it’s a time that lives right here within the current — shaping our tradition, informing our choices, and serving to us forge the best way forward.”
The ceremony additionally honored the crew members of Apollo 1 and area shuttle Challenger.
The seven-member crew of Challenger was misplaced when the orbiter suffered an in-flight breakup throughout launch Jan. 28, 1986. The commander was Francis R. Scobee and the mission pilot was Michael J. Smith. Mission specialists had been Judith A. Resnik, Ellison S. Onizuka and Ronald E. McNair. The mission additionally carried two payload specialists, Gregory B. Jarvis and Sharon Christa McAuliffe, who was the company’s first trainer in area.
The primary Apollo crew — Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee — perished when a flash hearth broke out of their spacecraft on Jan. 27, 1967.
“Why do we’ve got a NASA Day of Remembrance?” mentioned Bob Cabana, NASA affiliate administrator. “It’s to honor our fallen comrades. However, extra importantly, it’s so we don’t overlook exhausting classes realized from Apollo, Challenger, and Columbia. I’m keen to wager that half of the NASA workforce wasn’t right here after we launched the final shuttle mission. It’s so necessary that they be taught these classes in order that they aren’t repeated once more.”
Instantly following the ceremony, Sheryl Chafee, Astronaut Memorial Basis (AMF) Board of Administrators chairperson, accompanied by Janet Petro and Bob Cabana, positioned a wreath in entrance of the Area Mirror Memorial, adopted by one minute of silence. A bell was rung because the names of every fallen astronaut had been learn. Friends and most of the people in attendance had been invited to pay their respects by inserting flowers on the fence in entrance of the memorial.
“We take time to pause and replicate, to recollect those that have paid the last word sacrifice, but in addition to encourage us to future human exploration,” mentioned Thad Altman, AMF president and CEO. “And to recollect all these people who made all this doable–engineers, astronauts, directors. We take this chance to replicate on our successes and to be impressed for future missions.”
This 12 months’s ceremony was hosted by the AMF, which was based after the shuttle Challenger accident in 1986 to honor the sacrifices of fallen astronauts annually, in addition to encourage future generations by means of hands-on science, know-how, engineering, and arithmetic studying actions.
The AMF additionally constructed and maintains the Area Mirror Memorial, a 42-foot-high by 50-foot-wide granite monument that shows the names of the fallen astronauts from Apollo 1, shuttles Challenger and Columbia, in addition to others who’ve misplaced their lives whereas on NASA missions or in coaching. In 1991, the memorial was devoted as a nationwide memorial by Congress and President George H.W. Bush. View a replay of the ceremony right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZInZbJ6uVaM
