Ilan Ramon’s body was flown back to Israel where it was given a hero’s funeral. President Moshe Katsav and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon spoke at Ramon’s memorial ceremony.
NASA's Glenn Research Center made a tribute video highlighting the crew's tasks operating the three combustion experiments.
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Each year Jews around the world commemorate Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Commemoration Day. Six candles are lit in a solemn ceremony – each candle representing a million Jews killed during the Holocaust. Normally, Holocaust survivors are asked to light the candles. One of the biggest Yom HaShoah ceremonies is in Cleveland, Ohio, also the home of NASA’s Glenn Research Center. Mist scientist Suleyman Gokoglu is a Turkish-American Muslim. He told friends in Cleveland’s Jewish community about Ilan Ramon’s involvement with Mist, and they asked him if Ilan would be willing to light one of the six candles at their services in April 2003. After the accident, the community decided to add a seventh candle that year in memory of the Columbia astronauts, and especially Ilan. They asked Gokoglu to light that candle and speak about Columbia’s crew.
Memorials at the Johnson Space Center and in Houston
Within hours after the accident an impromptu memorial was created at JSC's main gate by the public.
Chief astronaut Kent Rominger talked about the STS-107 crew at their memorial service on February 4th. Here's a transcript of his remarks.
Astronaut Paul Lockhart led a formation of four T-38s in the 'missing man' formation to honor Columbia's crew.
On April 1, 2003, seven of the astronaut’s children and representatives, threw out the official first pitches for the Houston Astros 2003 baseball season. The children were Matthew Husband, Cameron McCool, Kaycee Anderson, Iain Clark, and David (Yiftah) Ramon. Also there were K.C.’s husband Jean-Pierre Harrison and astronaut Joan Higginbotham, who represented Dave Brown.
On April 16, 2003 trees were planted in honor of each of the astronauts in a grove at JSC. A tree has been planted in honor of every astronaut after their deaths.
Coincidentally Ilan's name in Hebrew means "tree".
Memorials at the Kennedy Space Center
Astronaut Jim Halsell talked about the STS-107 crew at the Kennedy Space Center memorial service. Here's a transcript of his remarks.
Somebody placed a photo of the STS-107 astronauts in a plain frame where it could be seen by Kennedy Space Center workers.
The astronauts’ names were added to the Astronaut Memorial in July 2003, but not unveiled until October 28, at the dedication ceremony attended by the astronauts’ families.
Dr. Jon Clark spoke for the families:
"We truly all are [members of the] Columbia families because we've all shared the loss of the crew and the first space shuttle. It would be hard to capture the thoughts and spirits of the crew.""It's not a memorial to the past, but a testimony to the future. And we must decide whether we are a space fearing or space faring [nation] as we step into the next phase of returning to flight and beyond. This memorial has many blank spots and they will not go unfilled, because the destiny of mankind will come at some cost. And therefore do not ask for who the mirror shines, it shines for you."
Legendary 40-year veteran astronaut John Young said,
"We all know that when you're involved in great endeavors you're involved in great risks. The crew knew that and they accepted those risks. Their mission was the most complex multi-disciplinary research mission that NASA has ever flown. Columbia's crew members will forever be heroes to us because they found the best within themselves and shared it with their families, their colleagues, their community, and their nation."
One Year Anniversary
A year after the accident a memorial was held at KSC. John Herrington represented the astronauts. He said, "This is the place where we leave the face of the Earth. But there's one group who didn't return - and they're still on their journey."
The Shoshone-Bannack "More Fun with Urine in Space" students traveled to Florida to participate in the ceremony and performed a traditional Native American healing ceremony. The students beat the drum, chanted, and presented NASA with gifts, including a hand-made mandela with the Columbia logo and colored ribbons in honor of the seven astronauts.
The students and their adult escorts were excited to meet Herrington, a fellow Native American. Herrington said, "I just think this is fun being around [the students]. Coming down here and sharing their personal aspect and being able to come down and doing a healing ceremony it means a lot to them - it's part of the recovery process for them too. I'm proud they're here."
Columbia Village
The control center for the Biopack experiments was located at the Florida Institute of Technology (Florida Tech), 35 miles south of the Kennedy Space Center. Seven dorms were already under construction and student Rebecca Mazzone suggested naming a building after each of the seven astronauts.
The Columbia Village dorms |
The entrance to Columbia Village |
Husband Hall |
Willie McCool's extended family at McCool Hall |
A map of the Columbia Village dormitories |
Columbia Point
Colorado climber Alan Silverstein had led an effort to place a memorial plaque on a mountain peak named 'Challenger Point'. Astronaut Scott Parazynski, an avid climber, had visited Challenger Point and led the effort to name a nearby peak 'Columbia Point.' Columbia Point is a 13,980 foot peak on the East side of Kit Carson Mountain in Colorado's Sangre de Cristo Mountains. When Columbia Point was dedicated four F-16s from a nearby Air Force base flew over in the missing man formation in honor of the Columbia astronauts.
Memorials in outer space
The GALEX spacecraft was the first NASA scientific spacecraft to launch after the Columbia accident. The scientists dedicated their first light image to the Columbia crew. They determined that the constellation Hercules was overhead when the accident took placed and used it for their "Columbia Dedication Field", showing the constellation in colors invisible from the Earth's surface.
Astronaut Ed Lu and cosmonauts Yuri Malenchenko and Alexandr Kaleri were scheduled to fly to the International Space Station on the shuttle in March 2003. After the accident the decision was made to reduce the crew size to two and launch Lu and Malenchenko on a Russian Soyuz rocket instead. They became the first humans to launch into space after the Columbia accident. Lu wore an STS-107 patch on his Russian Sokol suit for launch and landing as a personal dedication to the Columbia crew.
India renamed its first dedicated meteorology satellite Kalpana-1 in K.C.'s honor. The satellite is stationed at 74 degrees east.
On August 6, 2003, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) announced asteroids 51,823 through 51,829 were named after Columbia’s crew. Amateur astronomers with decent telescopes and CCD cameras can view the Columbia asteroids under good lighting conditions, but they're 1,600 times fainter than the faintest stars visible to the naked eye.
The Spirit rover landed in Guesev crater on Mars in January 2004. Its landing site was named the "Columbia Memorial Station" and hills on the horizon were named after each of the seven astronauts. There's an STS-107 logo on the spacecraft's antenna. NASA accidentally released an image of the spacecraft with the logo before launch and quickly pulled the photo from its websites. Spirit had a planned lifetime of just 90 martian days, but continued to operate far longer. In August 2005 Spirit reached the summit of Husband Hill.
Spirit's high gain antenna has a dedication to the Columbia crew |
The Columbia memorial station |
Spirit reached the Columbia Hills on June 15, 2004 |
Spirit explores Husband Hill |
A wide panorama from the summit of Husband Hill
The first shuttle to launch after the Columbia accident was the STS-114 Discovery mission in July 2005. During the flight the STS-114 and International Space Station Expedition 11 crew took the time to remember all of the astronauts and cosmonauts who lost their lives in the quest to explore space. Here's a transcript of their remarks.
Petr and Ilan painting courtesy of Barry Munden.
Yom HaShorah photo courtesy of Suleyman Gokoglu.
Fowler High memorial photo courtesy of Spacehab.
Husband statue photo courtesy of Amarillo Chamber of Commerce.
McCool statue photos by Nancy Neil - City of Lubbock Texas
McCool school photo by the US Navy.
Dave Brown park photos courtesy of Al Saylor.
Mike Anderson bust photos courtesy of Creighton University.
Laurel Clark fountain photos courtesy of the Downtown Racine Corporation.
JSC main gate photo courtesy of Angel Abbud-Madrid.
Astros photos courtesy of Houston Astros.
Columbia Point photos courtesy of Mike Smith - U.S. Forest Service, Sue Wolber, and Alan Silverstein.
Columbia Point aerial view by US Geological Survey.
GALEX Columbia Dedication Field first light photos courtesy of JPL and CalTech.
Spirit on Mars photos from JPL.
Spirit route up Husband Hill by OSU Mapping and GIS Laboratory.
Columbia asteroids diagram courtesy of JPL.
Kennedy Space Center T-38 missing man photo, anniversary photos, Columbia Village photos, and satellite tracking map by author Philip Chien.
Other photos from the author's collection and NASA.
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