Twenty years in the past, on Feb. 1, 2003, seven astronauts had been simply minutes away from returning to Florida’s Kennedy Area Middle (KSC) once they had been misplaced with the space shuttle Columbia. Like 19 different astronauts who preceded and adopted them in demise, the STS-107 crew made the final word sacrifice whereas within the pursuit of exploration and advancing spaceflight.
On Thursday (Jan. 26), NASA leaders, elected officers and members of The Astronauts Memorial Basis led a “NASA Day of Remembrance” ceremony at Kennedy’s Space Mirror Memorial (opens in new tab) in Florida to honor and bear in mind the fallen and, particularly, the Columbia seven.
“This 12 months marks the twentieth anniversary of the loss of the crew of Columbia through the reentry of STS-107. For some, that looks like a lifetime. For others, it looks like it was simply yesterday. However for our company, it’s a time that lives right here within the current, shaping our tradition and forming our selections, and serving to us to forge the best way forward,” stated KSC Director Janet Petro. “As increasingly individuals who had been current in our workforce on that day of tragedy 20 years in the past retire, it’s crucial that our tradition, our decision-making processes stay centered on the teachings that we be taught from Columbia, Challenger and Apollo 1.”
“At the same time as we glance to the longer term, we accomplish that with one eye on the previous, reminding ourselves of these classes and the worth that was paid,” stated Petro.
Associated: The shuttle Columbia disaster: What happened and what NASA learned
Devoted in 1991, the Area Mirror Memorial shows the names of each fallen astronaut (opens in new tab) minimize by way of the floor of the 42.5-foot-high by 50-foot-wide (13-by-15-meter) monument’s polished black granite, such that gentle can shine by way of from behind. The names of the STS-107 crew members — commander Rick Husband, pilot William McCool, mission specialists Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kapala Chawla and Laurel Clark and the primary Israeli to fly into space, payload specialist Ilan Ramon — seem on the memorial above and between the names of the astronauts misplaced within the 1986 space shuttle Challenger tragedy (opens in new tab) and the 1967 Apollo 1 hearth on the launch pad.
The names of 9 different astronauts who misplaced their lives whereas coaching, most throughout plane accidents, are positioned round these of the three fallen crews.
“Why will we do that yearly? Why do we’ve a NASA Day of Remembrance (opens in new tab)?” stated Bob Cabana, NASA affiliate administrator and a former astronaut. “Clearly, it’s to honor our fallen comrades on the mirror, those that paid the final word sacrifice in our quest to discover. However extra importantly, it is so we don’t overlook the hard lessons learned from Apollo, Challenger and Columbia (opens in new tab).”
“It’s so essential that they be taught these classes in order that they aren’t repeated once more,” he stated. “Why do we’ve to maintain repeating the identical onerous classes that this normalization of deviance — which you can have one thing incorrect, however so long as nothing unhealthy occurs, it is okay. It is not.”
In every of the post-tragedy investigations, it was discovered that by NASA diverting from its personal acknowledged flight guidelines, lives had been misplaced. For Columbia, it was the company’s option to preserve flying after understanding that insulation foam was separating from the car’s exterior gas tank, creating the danger for affect injury on the orbiter’s vulnerable warmth protect.
“I do not ever wish to should undergo one other Columbia,” stated Cabana.
Earlier than concluding the ceremony, Cabana, Petro and Sheryl Chaffee, chair of The Astronauts Memorial Foundation (opens in new tab) and daughter of Apollo 1 astronaut Roger Chaffee, positioned a wreath on the base of the Area Mirror. The three, joined by the opposite attendees, then noticed a second of silence.
NASA additionally marked the Day of Remembrance and twentieth anniversary of the STS-107 tragedy at different ceremonies across the nation.
On the Johnson Space Center in Houston, a T-38 jet flyover concluded a commemoration held on the heart’s Astronaut Memorial Grove, the place bushes have been planted for every member of the NASA astronaut corps who’ve died. Related wreath and flag-laying ceremonies occurred at Langley Analysis Middle in Virginia, Marshall Area Flight Middle in Alabama and Stennis Area Flight Middle in Mississippi.
The workers at Ames Analysis Middle in California noticed a second of silence, whereas Glenn Analysis Middle deliberate a panel dialogue on security with aeronautics and spaceflight specialists.
Associated: Space travel: Danger at every phase (infographic)
NASA Administrator Invoice Nelson, who flew on the final space shuttle mission that preceded the Challenger tragedy, was scheduled to guide an observance at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery in Virginia, the place monuments stand to Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia crews (opens in new tab).
“NASA’s Day of Remembrance is about pausing, remembering and uplifting the legacies of the NASA household who gave their lives to advance the reason for discovery,” stated Nelson in an announcement. “Whereas this can at all times be solemn day, it is also one among gratitude. We’re grateful that NASA’s adventurers shared their lives with us and made life higher on Earth.”
“As we proceed to increase humanity’s attain on this new period of exploration, we should at all times embrace NASA’s core worth of security,” he stated.
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