In honor of the members of the NASA family who lost their lives while furthering the cause of exploration and discovery for the benefit of all, the agency hosted its annual Day of Remembrance on Jan. 25.
Traditionally held on the fourth Thursday in January each year, NASA Day of Remembrance commemorates the crews of Apollo 1 (Jan. 27, 1967) and space shuttles Challenger (Jan. 28, 1986) and Columbia (Feb. 1, 2003).
The crew members killed in the Challenger disaster were Dick Scobee, the commander; Michael Smith, the pilot; mission specialists Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik and Ronald McNair; payload specialists Christa McAuliffe, who flew as part of the Teacher in Space Project, and Gregory Jarvis.
Onizuka, an Air Force flight test engineer from Hawaii, became the first Asian American in space as a crew member of the shuttle Discovery in January 1985.
“Our annual Day of Remembrance honors the sacrifice of the NASA family who lost their lives in the pursuit of discovery,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “While it is a solemn day, we are forever thankful that our fallen heroes shared their spirit of exploration with NASA, our country, and the world. Today, and every day, we embrace NASA’s core value of safety as we expand our reach in the cosmos for the benefit of all humanity.”
Observances were held at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia; Johnson Space Center in Houston; Kennedy Space Center in Florida; Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley; Glenn Research Center in Cleveland; Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.; Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.; and Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Miss.
