In Memoriam
February 1, 2008
It is hard for me to believe that it is five years since the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas while making its re-entry on 1 February 2003. I remember that day rather vividly, my father was up at my college for the day to visit. We had just come back from getting lunch when my roommate turned on the TV to see the horrific coverage of the loss of STS-107 and its seven crew members.While we are a day late for NASA’s official Day of Remembrance (31 January), I’d like to take the time to remember all those who put their lives first to further the exploration of space.
Apollo 1 - 27 January 1967
- Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Command Pilot
- Edward H. White II, Senior Pilot
- Roger B. Chaffee, Pilot
Challanger - 28 January 1986
- Francis “Dick” Scobee, Commander
- Michael J. Smith, Pilot
- Judith Resnik, Mission Specialist
- Ellison Onizuka, Mission Specialist
- Ronald McNair, Mission Specialist
- Gregory Jarvis, Payload Specialist
- Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Spaceflight Participant (Teacher in Space)
Columbia - 1 February 2003
- Rick D. Husband, Commander
- William C. McCool, Pilot
- Michael P. Anderson, Payload Commander
- Ilan Ramon, Payload Specialist
- Kalpana Chawla, Mission Specialist
- David M. Brown, Mission Specialist
- Laurel Clark, Mission Specialist
While this list is very U.S. centric, there are a large amount of fatalities involving both the Soviet Union and civilians. This article from Wikipedia has a comprehensive list of both fatalities and near-misses.
Posted in NASA
February 1st, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I think this quote sums up not just the Astronauts of Apollo 1, but all Astronauts who have lost their lives whether on a mission or still in training.
“If we die, we want people to accept it. We are in a risky business and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life.” –Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom–
February 2nd, 2008 at 4:11 pm
[...] February 1st is the five-year anniversary of Shuttle Columbia’s breakup over Texas. Seven astronauts lost their lives returning from a 16-day science mission, STS-107. NewsFromSpace was covering the [...]