Twenty years in the past, on Feb. 1, 2003, seven astronauts have been simply minutes away from returning to Florida’s Kennedy Area Middle (KSC) once they have been misplaced with the space shuttle Columbia. Like 19 different astronauts who preceded and adopted them in dying, the STS-107 crew made the last 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 throughout 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 choices, and serving to us to forge the best way forward,” mentioned KSC Director Janet Petro. “As increasingly more individuals who have 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 study from Columbia, Challenger and Apollo 1.”
“Whilst we glance to the longer term, we achieve this with one eye on the previous, reminding ourselves of these classes and the value that was paid,” mentioned 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) lower by 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 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 can we do that yearly? Why do we have now a NASA Day of Remembrance (opens in new tab)?” mentioned Bob Cabana, NASA affiliate administrator and a former astronaut. “Clearly, it’s to honor our fallen comrades on the mirror, those that paid the last word sacrifice in our quest to discover. However extra importantly, it is so we don’t neglect the hard lessons learned from Apollo, Challenger and Columbia (opens in new tab).”
“It’s so necessary that they study these classes in order that they aren’t repeated once more,” he mentioned. “Why do we have now to maintain repeating the identical laborious classes that this normalization of deviance — which you could have one thing fallacious, however so long as nothing unhealthy occurs, it is okay. It isn’t.”
In every of the post-tragedy investigations, it was discovered that by NASA diverting from its personal said flight guidelines, lives have been misplaced. For Columbia, it was the company’s option to maintain flying after figuring out that insulation foam was separating from the automobile’s exterior gasoline tank, creating the chance for affect injury on the orbiter’s vulnerable warmth defend.
“I do not ever need to should undergo one other Columbia,” mentioned 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 came about 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 consultants.
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,” mentioned Nelson in a press release. “Whereas this can all the time be solemn day, it is also one in every of gratitude. We’re grateful that NASA’s adventurers shared their lives with us and made life higher on Earth.”
“As we proceed to develop humanity’s attain on this new period of exploration, we should all the time embrace NASA’s core worth of security,” he mentioned.
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