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Space Heroes

Ground Crew Heroes

It may never be known how many people have lost their lives working on rockets and spaceships. Because Spaceships are rocket powered and because the development of rocketry had to precede the development of the spaceship, it is only proper to include those unfortunates who, in the course of working on rocket development, lost their lives.

Furthermore, because the purpose of the early spaceships was merely a change in target for the ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) Rockets that were used as spaceships, it is not fair to exclude the development of missiles from those who contributed -eventually- to the spaceship.

So, because of the number and diversity of rocket projects prior to the launching of the first man into orbit, it will probably never be known accurately how many people gave their lives in developing the rocket. Still, we can make a good estimate that is relatively accurate. Using the Wikipedia as a source of data we can come up with the following analysis.

The first - and possibly most important - person to die in a rocket related accident was Max Valier who was killed on May 17, 1930 while testing a rocket powered car. Valier had been one of the most public promoters of rocket development prior to his death, which cast a pall over rocket development in Europe.

From that point on, if we do not count the war related deaths attributable to the V-1 and V-2, there were only about 7 people killed during the development of these and other weapons. But as the weapons got bigger, so did the ground crew fatalities. In October of 1960, 126 people were killed at Baikonur Cosmodrome during a test of a Russian ICBM. In April 1964 3 people were killed and 9 injured in a Delta rocket explosion in Cape Canaveral. Not counting the two workers killed during construction on the Cape and 3 civilians in Europe during the next two year, the next big disaster was the explosion of the Russian Moon rocket in July of 1969 that killed over 100 ground crew.

The next big accident was at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in 1980 when 48 technicians were killed during a fueling of a Vostok booster. And then in China in 1996 a Long March killed somewhere between 50 and 200 civilians by veering off course. Even today, in 2003 in Brazil, 21 people were killed by a rocket explosion and in 2007, in California 3 people were killed working on the Scaled Composites rocket motors during a test.

The current count is that over 286 people have lost their lives working on or around rockets since Max Valier in 1930. That works out for every person directly killed by a spaceship, 10 people were killed on the ground preparing it.

There is no reason to suspect that this ratio will not continue. Rockets are very powerful and cannot help being dangerous. People cannot help making 'little' mistakes.

So bow your head and give a silent prayer of thanks for the unsung heroes and heroines of the space age, the ground crew.




Dedicated to those who have died in Spaceships

 
Copyright 2008 Rogers Rocket Ships. All Rights Reserved. This website and all included material are subject to copyright laws of the US. All rights are reserved by the individual copyright holders and are used with permission. Please contact us at Port Authority for permission to use any material for any purpose. A special thanks goes out to Winchell Chung of http://www.projectrho.com/index.html for his development of the opening video for this website.
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Valentin Bondarenko
Valentin Bondarenko was the first person to die while directly training for spaceflight in a spaceship. His accident was almost exactly like the Apollo 1 which would claim the next space travelers six years later. They were both on the ground running simulations and they both died in a fire.

Valentin was 24 when he died. Valentin Vasiliyevich Bondarenko (February 16, 1937 in Kharkov, Ukrainian SSR - March 23, 1961 in Moscow, USSR ) was a Soviet cosmonaut of Ukrainian descent.

Bondarenko was a Lieutenant in the Soviet Air Force when he was selected for cosmonaut training on April 4, 1960. He was married and had one child.

On March 23, 1961 Bondarenko was working in a [Vostok] training simulator pressurized with pure oxygen. After removing some biosensors from his body Bondarenko washed his skin with an alcohol-soaked cotton ball which he carelessly threw away. The cotton ball landed on an electric hot plate which started a flash fire in the oxygen-rich atmosphere and ignited Bondarenko's suit.

A watching doctor tried to open the chamber door but this took several minutes because of the pressure difference and Bondarenko suffered third-degree burns over most of his body. In 1984 the attending hospital physician Vladimir Golyakhovsky said that while attempting to start an intravenous drip he was only able to find an insertion point on the sole of one of Bondarenko's feet, where his flight boots had warded off the flames. According to Golyakhovsky, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin spent several hours at the hospital as "deathwatch officer" and Bondarenko died of shock eight hours after the mishap.

Bondarenko crater on the far side of the Moon is named after Valentin Vasiliyevich.

Oberg, James, Uncovering Soviet Disasters, Chapter 10: Dead Cosmonauts, pp 156-176, Random house, New York, 1988, retrieved 8 January 2008

Source: Wikipedia

You might say a little prayer for Valentin Bondarenko, the first person to die in a spaceship.

Gus Grissom
"If we die, we want people to accept it. We're 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." -Gus Grissom (John Barbour et al., Footprints on the Moon (The Associated Press, 1969), p. 125.)

“Gus� Grissom was the mission commander of Apollo 1. He was the second American astronaut in space and , along with his crew, the second person to die in a spaceship on 27 January 1967. He was 40 years old.

About Gus Grissom
Virgil Ivan Grissom was born in Mitchell, Indiana, 3 April 1926. As a child he attended the local Church of Christ and became a lifelong member. Grissom graduated from Mitchell High School and in 1950 earned a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University, then enlisted in the United States Air Force. He married Betty Moore Grissom and they had two children, Scott and Mark. Grissom was a master Mason and member of Mitchell Lodge 228.

Grissom received his pilot wings in March 1951. His first assignment was in Korea as an F-86 replacement pilot with the 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing. Grissom flew 100 combat missions during the Korean conflict with the 334th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. After returning from Korea he served as an instructor pilot at Bryan AFB in Bryan, Texas. In August 1955 Grissom entered the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio to study aeronautical engineering. In October 1956 he entered the test pilot school at Edwards Air Force Base, California and returned to Wright-Patterson in May 1957 as a test pilot assigned to the fighter branch.

As an Air Force captain in 1959 Grissom underwent a series of physical and psychological tests and was then chosen as one of the seven Project Mercury astronauts.

Grissom was pilot of Mercury-Redstone 4, popularly known as Liberty Bell 7, the second American (suborbital) spaceflight. After splashdown explosive bolts blew the hatch off unexpectedly and water flooded into the tiny capsule. Grissom exited through the open hatch and into the ocean but nearly drowned as water filled his flightsuit whilst a helicopter tried to lift and recover the spacecraft. However, the capsule had become too heavy with water and sank. Grissom strongly asserted he had done nothing to blow the hatch and NASA officials eventually agreed with him. Initiating the explosive egress system required hitting a metal trigger with the side of a closed fist. This was later shown to leave a big bruise but Grissom did not have one. The capsule was recovered in 1999 but no evidence was found which could explain how the hatch opened on its own. Years after, Guenter Wendt (who was pad leader for the early American manned space launches) wrote he believed a small cover over the external release actuator was accidentally lost sometime during the flight or splashdown and the T-handle may have been tugged by a stray parachute shroud line, or was perhaps damaged by the heat of re-entry, cooled upon splashdown, contracted and then fired.

Gemini 3
In early 1964 Alan Shepard was grounded after being diagnosed with Meniere's disease and Grissom was designated command pilot for Gemini 3, the first manned Project Gemini flight. This mission would make him the first astronaut to fly twice beyond the accepted boundary of space. Grissom was one of the smaller-sized astronauts and he worked very closely with the engineers and technicians from McDonnell Aircraft who built the Gemini capsule. The first three spacecraft were built around him and the design was humorously named the Gusmobile. However by July 1963 NASA discovered 14 out of the 16 astronauts could not fit themselves into the cabin and later cockpits were modified. During this time Grissom innovated a multi-axis joystick for controlling the maneuvering thrusters with one hand.

Naming of the Molly Brown
In a joking nod to the sinking of his Mercury craft Grissom named the first Gemini capsule the Molly Brown after the popular Broadway show The Unsinkable Molly Brown but NASA publicity officials were unhappy with this name. When Grissom and Young were ordered to come up with a new one they offered The Titanic. Aghast, NASA executives gave in and allowed the name Molly Brown but didn't use it in any official references. Subsequently and much to the agency's chagrin, on launch CAPCOM Gordon Cooper gave Gemini 3 its sendoff by saying over the uplink, "You're on your way, Molly Brown!" and ground controllers used this name throughout the flight. After the safe return of Gemini 3 NASA announced new spacecraft would not be named. Hence Gemini IV was not named American Eagle as planned. The naming of spacecraft resumed in 1967 after managers found the Apollo flights needed a name for each of two flight elements, the command module and lunar module. Lobbying by the astronauts and senior NASA administrators also had an effect. Apollo 9 had the callsigns Gumdrop for the command module and Spider for the lunar module. However, Wally Schirra had been prevented from naming his Apollo 7 spacecraft the Phoenix in honor of Grissom's Apollo 1 crew since it was believed the average taxpayer would not take a fire metaphor as intended.

Death
Grissom was backup command pilot for Gemini 6 when he shifted to the Apollo program and was assigned as commander of AS-204, which was meant to be the first manned Apollo flight. He was killed along with fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger B. Chaffee when the Apollo 1 command module caught fire and burned on the launchpad during a training exercise and pre-launch test at Cape Kennedy on 27 January 1967. The fire's ignition source was never determined but their deaths were attributed to a wide range of lethal design hazards in the early Apollo command module such as its highly pressurized 100% oxygen atmosphere during the test, many wiring and plumbing flaws, flammable materials in the cockpit, a hatch which might not open at all in an emergency and even the flightsuits worn by the astronauts. These along with other flaws and design problems were fixed and the Apollo program carried on successfully. Grissom was a Lieutenant Colonel at the time of his death and had logged a total of 4,600 hours flying time, including 3,500 hours in jet aircraft. In his 1994 autobiography Deke! chief astronaut Deke Slayton said he wanted one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts to be the first on the moon and, "Had Gus been alive, as a Mercury astronaut he would have taken the step." Slayton also wrote, "My first choice would have been Gus, which both Chris Kraft and Bob Gilruth seconded." Grissom and Chaffee are both buried in Section 3 of Arlington National Cemetery. White is buried at West Point Cemetery. He was a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross and, posthumously, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Ed White
Ed White was the first American to spacewalk and the first person to spacewalk by propelling himself in space via jet propulsion. Of his spacewalk, he said, "I'm very thankful in having the experience to be first... This is fun!" He made 62 orbits in Gemini 4 with Jim McDivitt, the longest duration flight by an American at the time.

Ed White was 36 when he died in Apollo 1

Edward Higgins White, II (Lt.Col , USAF) (November 14, 1930 - January 27, 1967) was a United States Air Force officer and a NASA astronaut. On June 3, 1965, he became the first American to conduct a spacewalk. White was killed during the Apollo 1 training accident and posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and was previously awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal for his Gemini 4 spaceflight.

Early years
He was born in San Antonio, Texas and earned a B.S. from the U.S. Military Academy in 1952, and an M.S. in aeronautical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1959. He attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force and was a pilot of F-86 and F-100 fighter jets. White was an experimental test pilot for the Aeronautical Systems Division and logged more than 3,000 flight hours, including 2,200 in jet aircraft. He was married to Patricia Finegan White and had two children, Bonnie Lynn and Edward III.

NASA career
He died with fellow astronauts "Gus" Grissom and Roger Chaffee in the Apollo 1 fire at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. He was buried with full military honors at West Point Cemetery and in 1997 was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. Grissom and Chaffee are both buried in Section 3 of Arlington National Cemetery.

Roger Chaffee
"You'll be flying along some nights with a full moon. You're up at 45,000 feet. Up there you can see it like you can't see it down here. It's just the big, bright, clear moon. You look up there and just say to yourself: I've got to get up there. I've just got to get one of those flights."

-Roger Chaffee (The New York Times, January 29, 1967, p. 48.)

Roger Bruce Chaffee (February 15, 1935 - January 27, 1967) was a U.S. Navy pilot who became an American astronaut in the Apollo program.

Early years
Roger Chaffee was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, attended Illinois Institute of Technology and earned a B.S. in aeronautical engineering from Purdue University in 1957. He was married to Martha Horn Chaffee, and had two children, Sheryl and Stephen. Chaffee was an Eagle Scout and a member of Phi Kappa Sigma.

He was 32.

Military and NASA career
Chaffee was a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy. In the book Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Race to the Moon, it is claimed that he flew the U2 spyplane which took the pictures of Soviet missiles in Cuba which President Kennedy used on television on October 22, 1962. However, during this time Chaffee actually flew Navy RA3Ds (a reconnaissance version of the carrier-based Douglas Skywarrior nuclear bomber). He was officially recognized for his service during the Cuban Missile Crisis but his exact role is unclear and it is unknown if he actually flew over Cuba.

He was chosen in the third group of astronauts in 1963 and had made no spaceflights before being selected as lunar module pilot for the first Apollo program flight.

Death
Chaffee died along with fellow astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom and Edward White in the Apollo 1 fire at Cape Kennedy. Chaffee and Grissom are both buried in Section 3 of Arlington National Cemetery, while White is buried at West Point Cemetery.

Vladimir Mikhaylovich Komarov
Vladimir Mikhaylovich Komarov (March 16, 1927, Moscow - April 24, 1967, Orenburg Oblast) was a Soviet cosmonaut. He was the first human to have been confirmed to die during a space mission, on Soyuz 1, and the first Soviet cosmonaut to travel into space more than once.

He was selected to become a cosmonaut in 1960 with the first cosmonaut group. After being the backup for Pavel Popovich on Vostok 4, his first spaceflight was with the Voskhod 1 mission. On his second flight, Soyuz 1, he was killed during a return, when the spacecraft crashed owing to failure of the parachute.

Just before impact, Soviet premier Alexey Kosygin told Komarov his country was proud of him. An American National Security Agency listening post in Istanbul noted Komarov's reply was inaudible, though persistent rumours stated that Komarov died cursing the spacecraft designers and flight controllers. Whatever the truth of the matter, a tape from a West German tracking station bearing some of Komarov's brief phrases was forwarded to the Command-Measurement Complex of the Soviet Union after the disaster and was reported to contain the word "killed", mixed in with Komarov's distraught unclear transmissions, among other flight data recorded on radio by the West Germans. The recording was made, apparently, on one of the last orbits, if not the final one. Komarov was married to Valentina Yakovlevna Kiselyova and had two children, Yevgeny and Irina.

Komarov's ashes were interned in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis on the Red Square in Moscow. Before leaving the moon, Neil Armstrong's final task was to place a small package of memorial items to honor Komarov, Yuri Gagarin and the Apollo 1 astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee.

The asteroid 1836 Komarov, discovered in 1971 is named in his honor, as is a crater on the Moon. The asteroid and the cosmonaut inspired composer Brett Dean in writing a symphonic piece commissioned by conductor Simon Rattle in 2006. The piece is named 'Komarov's Fall' and can be found on the EMI Classics Album of Simon Rattle's The Planets.

Among other honors, the Vladimir M. Komarov Astronautical Rocketry Club (ARK) in Ljubljana has also borne his name since 1969. The Federation Aeronautique Internationale's V.M. Komarov Diploma is named in his honor.

There was a Soviet satellite tracking ship named after him, the Kosmonaut Vladimir Komarov.

Source Wikipedia

Georgiy Timofeyevich Dobrovolskiy
Georgiy Timofeyevich Dobrovolskiy (June 1, 1928, Odessa, Ukrainian SSR - June 30, 1971) was a Soviet cosmonaut.

He flew on the Soyuz 11 mission and had the unfortunate distinction of being part of the first acknowledged Soviet crew to die during a space flight.

After a normal re-entry, the capsule was opened and the crew was found dead. It was discovered that a valve had opened just prior to leaving orbit that had allowed the capsule's atmosphere to vent away into space, suffocating the crew. Dobrovolskiy's ashes were inurned in the Kremlin Wall on the Red Square in Moscow.

Soyuz 11 was the first successful visit to the world's first space station, Salyut 1. However the mission ended in disaster when the crew capsule depressurised during preparations for re-entry, killing the three-man crew. This accident resulted in the first and to date only astronaut deaths to occur in space (not in high atmosphere). The cosmonauts aboard Soyuz 11 were Vladislav Volkov, Georgi Dobrovolski and Viktor Patsayev

Source: Wikipedia

Vladislav Nikolayevich Volkov
Vladislav Nikolayevich Volkov (b. November 23, 1935, Moscow - d. June 30, 1971) was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 7 and Soyuz 11 missions.

Graduated from Moscow Air Force Institute, 1959. As aviation engineer at Korolyov Design bureau was involved in the development of the Vostok and Voskhod spacecrafts prior to his selection as a cosmonaut.

He flew aboard Soyuz 7 in 1969 and spent 23 days on Salyut 1, the world's first space station, in 1971.

He was a member of the second crew to die during a space flight on Soyuz 11. After a normal re-entry, the capsule was opened and the crew was found dead. It was discovered that a valve had opened just prior to leaving orbit that had allowed the capsule's atmosphere to vent away into space, suffocating the crew.

Vladislav Volkov was decorated twice as the Hero of the Soviet Union (first on October 22, 1969 and posthumously on June 30, 1971). He was also awarded the Order of Lenin. The Volkov crater on the Moon is named in his honor. A street in Moscow is named after him.

Vladislav Volkov's ashes were inurned in the Kremlin Wall on the Red Square in Moscow.

In the movie "Virus" (1999), an alien intelligence inhabits the computer system of the research vessel "Akademic Vladislav Volkov" via a transmission from space. According to Brian Harvey's book Russia In Space, there was also a real Soviet communications ship called the Vladislav Volkov, but it was sold by the Russian government following the fall of the USSR. The Cosmonaut Volkov variety of heirloom tomato is also named for him.

Source Wikipedia

Viktor Ivanovich Patsayev
Viktor Ivanovich Patsayev (June 19, 1933, Aktyubinsk - June 30, 1971) was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 11 mission and had the unfortunate distinction of being part of the second crew to die during a space flight. Onboard space station Salyut 1 he operated the Orion 1 Space Observatory (see Orion 1 and Orion 2 Space Observatories), he became the first man to operate a telescope outside the Earth's atmosphere.

After a normal re-entry, the capsule was opened and the crew was found dead. It was discovered that a valve had opened just prior to leaving orbit that had allowed the capsule's atmosphere to vent away into space, suffocating the crew.

One of Patsayev's hands was found to be bruised, and he may have been trying to shut the valve manually at the time he lost consciousness.

Patsayev's ashes were inurned in the Kremlin Wall on the Red Square in Moscow.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Patsayev"

Gregory Bruce Jarvis
Gregory Bruce Jarvis (August 24, 1944 - January 28, 1986) was an American engineer who died during the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51-L, where he was serving as payload specialist.

He received a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University at Buffalo (SUNY) in 1967, and a Master's in the same discipline from Northeastern University in 1969. Jarvis joined the Air Force the same year and served until 1973, being discharged as a Captain. Thereafter he worked for Hughes Aircraft, and was selected as a Space Shuttle payload specialist in July 1984.

The East Engineering building on University at Buffalo (SUNY) north campus was re-named Jarvis Hall after Gregory Jarvis' death. Students nailed the name "Jarvis Hall" onto the side of the building, and in 1987 the name was made official with a dedication ceremony. Jarvis Hall is devoted largely to engineering support services.

Jarvis is survived by his wife Marcia C. Jarvis (nee Jarboe) and parents Ellen and Bruce Jarvis. Jarvis was portrayed by Richard Jenkins in the 1990 TV movie Challenger.

Source: Wikipedia

Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe
Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe (September 2, 1948 - January 28, 1986) was an American teacher from Concord, New Hampshire who was selected from among more than 11,000 applicants to participate in the NASA Teacher in Space Project. She died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Early life
Born Sharon Christa Corrigan on September 2, 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts, McAuliffe was the oldest of five children of Edward and Grace George Corrigan. Her mother, born Grace George, is of Maronite Lebanese origin through her father (Christa's grandfather) and is a niece of historian Philip Hitti. The year Christa was born, her father was completing his sophomore year at Boston College. Not long there after, he took a job as an assistant comptroller in a Boston department store and the family moved to Framingham, Massachusetts, where she attended and graduated from Marian High School in 1966. As a youth, she was inspired by the Apollo moon landing program, and wrote years later on her NASA application form that "I watched the Space Age being born, and I would like to participate!"

Career as an educator
McAuliffe attended Framingham State College in her hometown, graduating in 1970. A few weeks later, she married her longstanding boyfriend, Steven J. McAuliffe, and they moved to the Washington, DC metropolitan area so Steven could attend the Georgetown University Law Center. They had two children: Scott and Caroline, who were nine and six respectively when she died.

McAuliffe took a job teaching in the secondary schools, specializing in American history, social studies, law, economics, and a self-designed course: "The American Woman". They stayed in the Washington area for the next eight years; she was teaching and completing a Master of Arts from Bowie State University in Maryland. They moved to Concord, New Hampshire in 1978, when Steven accepted a job as an assistant to the state attorney general. Christa took a teaching post at Concord High School in 1982. She was a Social Studies teacher and taught several courses including "American Culture", "Economics", "American Foreign Policy", and Womans Studies". A large part of her teaching techniques were field trips or bringing in speakers. In 1984, she learned about NASA's efforts to locate an educator to fly on the space shuttle. They wanted a teacher, or an ordinary person who would spark the interests of the Americans further into the studies of space. The intent was to find a gifted teacher who could communicate with students while in orbit.

Teacher in Space Project
Main article: Teacher in Space Project
NASA selected McAuliffe for this position on July 19, 1985 (another teacher, Barbara Morgan, served as her backup). In the autumn of that year, both she and Morgan took a year-long leave of absence from teaching (NASA paid their salaries) to train for an early 1986 space shuttle mission. While not a member of the NASA Astronaut Corps, she would be part of the STS-51-L crew and would teach lessons from space. After being chosen to be the first teacher in space, McAuliffe was interviewed by many TV personalities, including the likes of Larry King, Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and Regis Philbin. She had an immediate rapport with the media, and the Teacher in Space Project received tremendously popular attention as a result. It is in part because of the excitement over McAuliffe's presence on Challenger that the accident had such a significant effect on the nation.

Barbara Morgan became a professional astronaut in January 1998, 12 years after McAuliffe's death. Morgan flew on the space shuttle mission STS-118 aboard Endeavour (the orbiter that replaced Challenger) to the International Space Station on August 8, 2007, 21 years after the Challenger disaster.

Legacy
She was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

After her death, she was honored at many events, including sports events such as the Daytona 500. The Christa McAuliffe Planetarium in Concord, New Hampshire and the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center in Pleasant Grove, Utah are named in her memory, as are asteroid 3352 McAuliffe and the McAuliffe crater on the Moon. At least 35 schools have been named after her, including Christa McAuliffe Middle School in Lake Worth, Florida. A residence hall located on the campus of her Alma Mater, Bowie State University, is named after McAuliffe: The Christa McAuliffe Residential Complex. Christa McAuliffe Street in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina is also named in her honor. Located nearby in Myrtle Beach are Dick Scobee Road and Ronald McNair Boulevard. A portion of U.S. Route 460 passing through Roanoke County, Virginia was renamed Challenger Avenue in honor of the seven fallen crew members.

McAuliffe was portrayed by Karen Allen in the 1990 TV movie Challenger. A documentary film about McAulifffe and Morgan, produced by Renee Sotile & Mary Jo Godges aired on CNN in January 2006, called Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars. It commemorated the 20th anniversary of her death. The 75 minute feature version narrated by Susan Sarandon with songs by Carly Simon.

The Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference has been held every year in Nashua, New Hampshire since 1986. The conference is devoted to educational technology, with a broad vendor presence and presenters both from technology companies and from regional schools, with an emphasis on curricular technology use and classroom management techniques.

Twenty years after the Challenger accident, Christa's son Scott is a multimedia specialist. He married in 2004. Meanwhile, her daughter, Caroline, grew up to pursue the same career that her mother had pursued: teaching. Steve remarried and became a federal judge in 1992. He serves with the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire in Concord. Christa's mother Grace, is still talking to school children about McAuliffe.

The McAuliffe star system in the Wing Commander computer game series is named for her. The spaceship on the children's science-fiction series Space Cases, about a group of students lost in space, was called the "Christa". She is mentioned in the Dan Brown book Deception Point. There were many cartoons that honored McAuliffe. One such tribute is when cartoon characters, such as the Animaniacs, put up a statue of McAuliffe on display.

Christa McAuliffe Intermediate School 187 is a gifted and talented middle school in Brooklyn, NY. The mission of the school is to be a "center for educational innovation and accomplishment. It is a school with a reputation for drawing the best of all its students. The mission of this school is quite simple. It is the responsibility of all the stakeholders in our school to encourage and foster high standards of excellence in the area of academic and social growth." This mission for the school embodies all that Christa McAuliffe held dear: bravery, courage, and challenging students to be the best students and people possible. The students are even called Explorers, and the yearbook The Challenger, to honor McAuliffe.

Source Wikipedia

Ronald Ervin McNair, Ph.D.
Ronald Ervin McNair, Ph.D. (October 21, 1950 - January 28, 1986) was an American physicist and NASA astronaut. McNair perished during the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51-L.

Biography
A native of Lake City, South Carolina, McNair received a B.S. in physics from North Carolina A&T State University in 1971, and a Ph.D. in the same discipline from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1977. He was also honored with honorary doctorates in 1978, 1980 and 1984.

He was a fifth-degree black belt karate instructor and had won five regional championships. Among many other studies in the field of physics, McNair had conducted research on the scientific foundations of the martial arts. Additionally, he was a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity.

After graduation from MIT, he became a staff physicist at the Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.

During the 1970s, actress Nichelle Nichols of Star Trek fame was employed by NASA to recruit minority candidates for the space program. McNair was chosen for the process, selected for the astronaut program in 1978, and flew on a Challenger mission in February 1984 as a mission specialist.

McNair was a saxophonist; before the mission he worked with composer Jean Michel Jarre on a piece of music, Rendez-vous VI. It was intended that he would record his saxophone solo on board Challenger, making it the first piece of music played in space. After the disaster, the piece was renamed Ron's Piece.

Film and theater
McNair was portrayed by Joe Morton in the 1990 TV movie Challenger. There is a one man show about his life titled Black Eagle.

Source Wikipedia

Ellison Shoji Onizuka
Ellison Shoji Onizuka (June 24, 1946 - January 28, 1986) was a Japanese-American astronaut from Kealakekua, Kona, Hawaii who died during the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger, where he was serving as Mission Specialist for mission STS-51-L.

Quote:
"Every generation has the obligation to free men's minds for a look at new worlds... to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation." - Ellison S. Onizuka

Early life
Ellison Onizuka was the oldest son and second youngest child of the late Masamitsu and Mitsue Onizuka. He had two older sisters, Shirley and Norma, and a younger brother, Claude. Claude became the family spokesman when Ellison attained fame as an astronaut and continued after the Challenger accident. Growing up, Ellison was an active participant in 4-H and the Boy Scouts, where he reached the level of Eagle Scout.

He graduated from Konawaena High School in Kealakekua in 1964. He received a Bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering in June 1969, and a Master's in that field in December of the same year, from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He participated in Air Force ROTC during his time there and is an alumnus of Triangle Fraternity.

Onizuka married Lorna Leiko Yoshida while completing his studies at the University of Colorado. They had two daughters, Zoe Spears (b. 1969) and Darien Lei Shizue (b. 1975).

Air Force career
In January 1970, Onizuka entered active duty with the United States Air Force, where he served as a flight test engineer and as a test pilot. At the Sacramento Air Logistics Center at McClellan Air Force Base, he worked in test flight programs and systems security engineering for the F-84, F-100, F-105, F-111, EC-121T, T-33, T-39, T-28, and A-1.

From August 1974 to July 1975, Onizuka attended the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School. In July 1975, he was assigned to the Test Flight Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California. He became a squadron test flight engineer at the Test Pilot School, and later worked as a manager for engineering support in the training resources division. His duties there were based on the instruction of courses and the management of the airship fleet (A-7, A-37, T-38, F-4, T-33, and NKC-135) being used for the Test Pilot School and Test Flight Center. Onizuka managed to register more than 1,700 flight hours.

NASA career
Onizuka was selected for the astronaut program in January 1978, and completed one year of evaluation and training in August 1979. Later, he worked in the experimentation team, Orbiter test team, and launch support crew at the Kennedy Space Center for the STS-1 and STS-2. At NASA, he worked on the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL) test and revision software team. He also collaborated on other technical projects, for instance, as astronaut crew team coordinator.

His first space mission took place on January 24, 1985, with the Kennedy Space Center launch of mission STS 51-C on Space Shuttle Discovery, the first space shuttle mission for the Department of Defense. Onizuka was accompanied by the commander Ken Mattingly, pilot Loren Shriver, fellow mission specialist James Buchli, and payload specialist Gary E. Payton. During the mission, Onizuka was responsible for the activities of the primary payloads, which included the unfolding of the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) surface. After 48 orbits around the Earth, Discovery landed at the Kennedy Space Center on January 27, 1985. Onizuka had completed a total of 74 hours in space.

Onizuka was assigned to the mission STS 51-L on the Space Shuttle Challenger that took off from Kennedy Space Center at 11:38:00 EST (16:38:00 UTC) on January 28, 1986. The other Challenger crew members were commander Dick Scobee, pilot Michael J. Smith, mission specialists Ronald McNair, Judith Resnik, and Gregory Jarvis, and payload specialist Christa McAuliffe. Challenger was destroyed by aerodynamic stress when rupture of the fuel tank at 73 seconds after launch turned the spacecraft out of proper position. All seven crew members were killed. NASA had estimated that the probability of a catastrophic accident during launch, the most perilous portion of space flight, was 1 in 438.

Onizuka Air Force Station in Sunnyvale, California, Onizuka Center for International Astronomy Mauna Kea Visitor Information Station on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, Onizuka Village family housing on Hickam Air Force Base and the Astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka Space Center at Kona International Airport in Hawaii are dedicated to him.

Two astronomical features were also named after him: an asteroid discovered by Edward L. G. Bowell on February 8, 1984, 3355 Onizuka and a 29 km diameter crater on the moon, Onizuka Crater. Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, California also has a street named after him, as does the street surrounding Whitcomb Elementary in Clear Lake City, Houston, Texas, where his daughters attended school at the time of the Challenger disaster.

Triangle Fraternity has the Ellison Onizuka Young Alumnus Award in tribute to him.

In Movies/TV
- Onizuka was portrayed by Keone Young in the 1990 TV movie Challenger.
- In Star Trek: The Next Generation, a shuttle carried aboard USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D bears his name.

Judith Arlene Resnik
Judith Arlene Resnik (April 5, 1949 - January 28, 1986) was an American engineer and a NASA astronaut who died in the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger during the launch of mission STS-51-L.

Life
Resnik was born in Akron, Ohio and attended Hebrew school. Judith A. Resnik has one brother, Charles, four years younger. Her parents were Marvin, an optometrist, and Sara Resnik. A graduate of Firestone High School, she excelled in math and played classical piano. She received a B.S. in electrical engineering from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University in 1970, the year she married fellow student Michael Oldak. They divorced in 1974 because Michael wanted children; Judith wanted to focus on her career. Resnik then earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1977 at the University of Maryland. After graduation from Carnegie Mellon, she was employed at RCA as a design engineer, and later worked with various NASA projects contracted to the company.

While working toward her doctorate, Resnik was affiliated with the National Institutes of Health as a biomedical engineer. Later, she was a systems engineer with Xerox Corporation.

Astronaut
Resnik was selected for the astronaut program in January 1978, serving as a mission specialist on the maiden voyage of Discovery, from August to September 1984. She was likewise a mission specialist aboard Challenger for STS-51-L.

Legacy
Resnik crater, located within the Apollo impact basin on the far side of the Moon, was named in her honor.

A dormitory at Carnegie Mellon is named in her honor and there is a statue commemorating her on the grounds. The school library at Firestone High School, Resnik's high school alma mater, was also named after her.

Fairlawn Elementary School in her hometown of Akron was renamed to Judith A. Resnik Community Learning Center when it reopened in December 2006. There is also an elementary school in Gaithersburg, Maryland named in her honor, having been opened in 1992. Judy Resnik Drive, a street in Randolph, NJ was also named after Resnik.

Resnik was portrayed by Julie Fulton in the 1990 TV movie Challenger.

Source Wikipedia

Francis Richard Scobee
Francis Richard "Dick" Scobee (May 19, 1939 - January 28, 1986) was an American astronaut who was killed commanding the Space Shuttle Challenger, which suffered catastrophic booster failure during launch of the STS-51-L mission.

Born in Cle Elum, Washington, Scobee enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1957, where he served as a reciprocating engine mechanic at Kelly Air Force Base in Texas. While off duty, he attended college, and eventually received a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Arizona in 1965; the same year, he was awarded an officer's commission. Afterward, he attended flight school and earned his wings in 1966, serving as a combat aviator in the Vietnam War. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, and other decorations.

After his tour of duty, Scobee attended the Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, 100 miles north of Los Angeles, California. Upon graduation in 1972, he became an Air Force test pilot, logging thousands of hours of flight time in dozens of aircraft, including the Boeing 747, the experimental X-24B lifting body, the F-111 Aardvark, and the gigantic C-5 Galaxy. Scobee died a Lieutenant colonel. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart medal.

Selected for NASA's astronaut program in January 1978, Scobee completed his training in August 1979. While awaiting his first orbital spaceflight mission, he served as an instructor pilot for the shuttle's 747 carrier aircraft. In April 1984, Scobee piloted Challenger mission STS-41-C, which successfully deployed one satellite and repaired another.

Scobee was elevated to the role of spacecraft commander for the ill-fated STS-51-L mission. The mission, designed to deploy a satellite to study the approaching Halley's Comet and to inaugurate the Teacher in Space Project, was delayed numerous times due to bad weather and technical glitches. When the mission finally did lift off the pad, an O-ring seal failure destroyed the shuttle 73 seconds into the flight, killing Scobee and the other six members of the crew; the tragedy, viewed live on national television, prompted several days of national mourning, as well as a major shakeup at NASA.

Buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Scobee was survived by his wife June (nee Kent) and two children, Kathie and Richard. In his spare time, he loved all forms of outdoor activity, as well as flying, oil painting, woodwork, riding motorcycles, playing racquetball, and running. In 2004, Scobee was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame.

He attended Auburn Senior High School, Cascade Middle School, and North Auburn Elementary School in Auburn, Washington. He graduated in 1957. After the Challenger explosion, North Auburn Elementary School was re-named Dick Scobee Elementary School in his honor. Auburn Municipal Airport was also renamed Dick Scobee Field.

Dick Scobee Road in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina was also named in his honor. Also located nearby in Myrtle Beach are Ronald McNair Boulevard and Christa McAuliffe Street.

Scobee was portrayed by Barry Bostwick in the 1990 TV movie Challenger. He also made an appearance in the Imax documentary The Dream is Alive, shot during the STS-41C mission.

Source Wikipedia

Michael John Smith
Michael John Smith, usually known as Mike Smith (April 30, 1945 - January 28, 1986) was an American astronaut, pilot of the Space Shuttle Challenger when it was destroyed during the STS-51-L mission. All seven crew members died.

Smith was born in Beaufort, North Carolina; an airfield there is named for him. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1967 and served as a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War, earning numerous decorations for combat including the Distinguished Flying Cross. He continued his career with the Navy after the war, becoming a Navy test pilot; he was promoted posthumously by Congress to the rank of Captain, and has had a Chair named in his honor at the United States Navy Postgraduate School. Among his other posthumous awards was the Purple Heart medal.

Smith was selected for the astronaut program in May 1980; in addition to being pilot on the Challenger, he had been slated to pilot a future shuttle mission which had been scheduled for Fall of 1986.

Smith was quite critical of NASA's decision to scrub the scheduled January 26 launch of Challenger due to a forecast of rain. His experience as a pilot naturally led him to study the weather patterns prior to the flight, and a study of the jet stream caused him to be concerned about an approaching cold front over Cape Canaveral. Earlier, he had urged NASA technicians to complete installation of needed spare parts so the shuttle could get off the ground by January 26 at the latest. As it turned out, the expected rain never arrived, and a frustrated Smith told a friend, "You know, you've got people down here making decisions who've never even flown an airplane before."

Smith was portrayed by Brian Kerwin in the 1990 TV movie Challenger.

Source Wikipedia

Michael Phillip Anderson
Michael Phillip Anderson (December 25, 1959 - February 1, 2003) was a United States Lieutenant Colonel (USAF), a NASA astronaut, and the Space Shuttle payload commander of STS-107 (Columbia) who was killed when the craft disintegrated after reentry into the Earth's atmosphere.

Prior to the final launch of the Columbia, Anderson stated: *"There's always that unknown."

Experience
Anderson graduated form the University of Washington in 1981 and was commissioned a second lieutenant. After completing a year of technical training at Keesler AFB Mississippi he was assigned to Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. At Randolph he served as Chief of Communication Maintenance for the 2015 Communication Squadron and later as Director of Information System Maintenance for the 1920 Information System Group.

In 1986 he was selected to attend Undergraduate Pilot Training at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma. Upon graduation he was assigned to the 2nd Airborne Command and Control Squadron, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska as an EC 135 pilot, flying the Strategic Air Command's airborne command post code-named "Looking Glass".

From January 1991 to September 1992 he served as an aircraft commander and instructor pilot in the 920th Air Refueling Squadron, Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Michigan.

From September 1992 to February 1995 he was assigned as an instructor pilot and tactics officer in the 380 Air Refueling Wing, Plattsburgh Air Force Base, New York.

Anderson logged over 3000 hours in various models of the KC-135 and the T-38A aircraft.

NASA experience
Selected by NASA in December 1994, Anderson reported to the Johnson Space Center in March 1995. He completed a year of training and evaluation, and was qualified for flight crew assignment as a mission specialist. Anderson was initially assigned technical duties in the Flight Support Branch of the Astronaut Office. Anderson flew on STS-89 and STS-107, logging over 593 hours in space.

Space flight experience
STS-89 Endeavour (January 22-31, 1998), was the eighth Shuttle-Mir docking mission during which the crew transferred more than 9,000 pounds of scientific equipment, logistical hardware and water from the Space Shuttle to Mir. In the fifth and last exchange of a U.S. astronaut, STS-89 delivered Andy Thomas to Mir and returned with David Wolf. Mission duration was 8 days, 19 hours and 47 seconds, traveling 3.6 million miles in 138 orbits of the Earth.

STS-107 Columbia (January 16 to February 1, 2003). The 16-day flight was a dedicated science and research mission. Working 24 hours a day, in two alternating shifts, the crew successfully conducted approximately 80 experiments. The STS-107 mission ended abruptly on February 1, 2003 when Space Shuttle Columbia and his crew perished during entry, 16 minutes before scheduled landing. Mission duration was 15 days, 22 hours and 20 minutes.

Personal data
Anderson was born in Plattsburgh, New York, but considered Spokane, Washington, to be his hometown. Anderson died on February 1, 2003 over the southern United States when Space Shuttle Columbia and its crew perished during entry, 16 minutes prior to scheduled landing. He is survived by his wife and children. Michael enjoyed photography, chess, computers, and tennis.

Awards
- Posthumously awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal
- the NASA Distinguished Service Medal
- the Defense Distinguished Service Medal (DDSM)
- the Congressional Space Medal of Honor
- the Purple Heart medal from the U.S. Air Force

Special honors
- Distinguished graduate USAF Communication Electronics Officers course
- Recipient of the Armed Forces Communication Electronics Associations Academic Excellence Award 1983
- Received the USAF Undergraduate Pilot Training Academic Achievement Award for Class 87-08 Vance AFB
- Awarded the Defense Superior Service Medal
- the USAF Meritorious Service Medal
- the USAF Achievement Medal with one oak leaf cluster.

Tributes
- State Route 904, running through Cheney, Washington, where he graduated from high school, was renamed in his memory.
- Asteroid 51824 Mikeanderson was posthumously named after Anderson.
- Anderson Hall, in the Columbia Village apartments, at the Florida Institute of Technology is named after him.
- Anderson Plaza, the green space in front of the Hixson-Lied Science Center at Creighton University was named after him in a compromise between the student body, who wanted the Science Center named for Anderson, and the administration who had already sold the naming rights to the Hixson-Lied family.
- Blair Elementary School on Fairchild Air Force Base was renamed Anderson Elementary School in his honor.
- Avondale Elementary School in Avondale, AZ was renamed Michael Anderson Elementary in his honor. He attended school there when he was in 3rd grade and one of the School T-shirts was aboard the Columbia on its last voyage.

Source Wikipedia

David McDowell Brown
David McDowell Brown (April 16, 1956 - February 1, 2003) was a United States Naval Captain and a NASA astronaut. He was killed on his first space flight, when the Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-107) disintegrated during orbital reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. Brown became an astronaut in 1996, but had not served on a space mission prior to the Columbia disaster

Military career
Brown joined the Navy after his internship at the Medical University of South Carolina. Upon completion of flight surgeon training in 1984, he reported to the Navy Branch Hospital in Adak, Alaska, as Director of Medical Services. He was then assigned to Carrier Airwing Fifteen which deployed aboard the USS Carl Vinson in the western Pacific. In 1988, he was the only flight surgeon in a ten year period to be chosen for pilot training. He was ultimately designated a naval aviator in 1990 in Beeville, Texas, ranking number one in his class. Brown was then sent for training and carrier qualification in the A-6E Intruder. In 1991 he reported to the Naval Strike Warfare Center in Fallon, Nevada, where he served as a Strike Leader Attack Training Syllabus Instructor and a Contingency Cell Planning Officer. Additionally, he was qualified in the F-18 Hornet and deployed from Japan in 1992 aboard the USS Independence flying the A-6E with VA-115. In 1995, he reported to the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School as their flight surgeon where he also flew the T-38 Talon.

Brown logged over 2,700 flight hours with 1,700 in high performance military aircraft. He was qualified as first pilot in NASA T-38 aircraft.

He held an FCC issued Technician Class amateur radio license with the call sign KC5ZTC.

NASA career
Selected by NASA in April 1996, Brown reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1996. He completed two years of training and evaluation, and was qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist. He was initially assigned to support payload development for the International Space Station, followed by the astronaut support team responsible for orbiter cockpit setup, crew strap-in, and landing recovery. Brown flew aboard STS-107, logging 15 days, 22 hours, and 20 minutes in space.

Space flight experience
STS-107 Columbia (January 16 to February 1, 2003). The 16-day flight was a dedicated science and research mission. Working 24 hours a day, in two alternating shifts, the crew successfully conducted approximately 80 experiments. The STS-107 mission ended abruptly on February 1, 2003 when Space Shuttle Columbia and her crew perished during entry, 16 minutes before scheduled landing.

Tributes
- Asteroid 51825 Davidbrown was named after Brown
- Brown Hall, in the Columbia Village apartments, at the Florida Institute of Technology is named after him.
- He is the first person ever to be posthumously awarded the William & Mary Alumni Association's Alumni Medal.
- The Laurel B. Clark and David M. Brown Aerospace Medicine Academic Center, located at the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute, is named after him.
- Brown's parents, who live(d) in Rappahannock County, Virginia, were given respect by the Virginia State Police. They placed a marked police car and officer at the end of the driveway for several days.

Awards and honors
- Navy Operational Flight Surgeon of the Year in 1986
- Meritorious Service Medal
- Navy Achievement Medal

Posthumously awarded the:
- NASA Space Flight Medal
- Purple Heart
- NASA Distinguished Service Medal
- Defense Distinguished Service Medal
- Congressional Space Medal of Honor

Source wikipedia

Kalpana Chawla
Kalpana Chawla (1 July 1961 - 1 February 2003), was an Indian-American astronaut and space shuttle mission specialist. She was one of seven crewmembers killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

Early life
Kalpana Chawla was born in a Hindu family in Karnal, Haryana, India. Kalpana in Sanskrit means "imagination of the mind" and thus also "creation." Her interest in flying was inspired by J. R. D. Tata, a pioneering Indian pilot and industrialist.

Education
Kalpana Chawla studied at Tagore Public School, Karnal for her earlier schooling and she pursued further studies aeronautical engineering at Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh, India, in 1982 where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree. She was one of the three women in the college at the time. She moved to the United States in 1982 and obtained a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington (1984). Chawla earned a second Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering in 1986 and a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering in 1988 from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Later that year she began working for NASA Ames Research Center as vice president of Overset Methods, Inc. where she did CFD research on V/STOL Chawla held a Certificated Flight Instructor rating for airplanes, gliders and Commercial Pilot licenses for single and multiengine airplanes, seaplanes and gliders. She held an FCC issued Technician Class Amateur Radio license with the call sign KD5ESI. She met and married Jean-Pierre Harrison, a flying instructor and aviation writer, in 1983 and became a naturalized United States citizen in 1990.

NASA career
Chawla joined the NASA astronaut corps in March 1995 and was selected for her first flight in 1998 Her first space mission began on November 19, 1997 as part of the six astronaut crew that flew the Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87. Chawla was the first Indian-born woman and the second person of Indian origin to fly in space, following cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma who flew in 1984 in a Soviet spacecraft. It must be noted that while Rakesh Sharma represented India, Chawla was an American astronaut who represented the United States and India, too. Sharma and Chawla never met despite their common interests. On her first hi mission Chawla traveled over 10.4 million miles in 252 orbits of the earth, logging more than 360 hours in space. During STS-87, she was responsible for deploying the Spartan Satellite which malfunctioned, necessitating a spacewalk by Winston Scott and Takao Doi to capture the satellite. A five-month NASA investigation fully exonerated Chawla by identifying errors in software interfaces and the defined procedures of flight crew and ground control.

After the completion of STS-87 post-flight activities, Chawla was assigned to technical positions in the astronaut office, her performance in which was recognized with a special award from her peers.

In 2000 she was selected for her second flight as part of the crew of STS-107. This mission was repeatedly delayed due to scheduling conflicts and technical problems such as the July 2002 discovery of cracks in the shuttle engine flow liners. On January 16, 2003 Chawla finally returned to space aboard Columbia on the ill-fated STS-107 mission. Chawla's responsibilities included the SPACEHAB/FREESTAR microgravity experiments, for which the crew conducted nearly 80 experiments studying earth and space science, advanced technology development, and astronaut health and safety.

Chawla's last visit to India was during the 1991 - 1992 new year holiday when she and her husband spent time with her family. For various reasons, Chawla was never able to follow up on invitations to visit India after she became an astronaut.

Personal characteristics
Chawla was a vegetarian. On her mission, she carried a white silk banner as part of a worldwide campaign to honor teachers, as well as nearly two dozen CDs, including ones by Abida Parveen, Yehudi Menuhin, Ravi Shankar, and Deep Purple. She went to her first rock concert, a Deep Purple show, in 2001 with her husband. "Kalpana is not necessarily a rock music aficionado", her husband said of a Deep Purple show, "...but (she) nevertheless characterized the show as a 'spiritual experience.'" She enjoyed birdwatching, backpacking, hiking, flying, and reading. Quoting philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca she always said, "I was not born for one corner; the whole world is my native land."

Awards
Posthumously awarded:
- Congressional Space Medal of Honor
- NASA Space Flight Medal
- NASA Distinguished Service Medal
- Defense Distinguished Service Medal (DDSM).

Memoria
- Kalpana Chawla Memorial Scholarship program was instituted by Indian students association (ISA) at the [University of Texas at El Paso] [(UTEP)] in 2005 for meritorious graduate students.
- Asteroid 51826 Kalpanachawla, one of seven citations named after the Columbia's crew
- On February 5, 2003, India's Prime Minister announced that the meteorological series of satellites, "METSAT", will be renamed as "KALPANA". The first satellite of the series, "METSAT-1", launched by India on September 12, 2002 will be now known as "KALPANA-1". "KALPANA-2" is expected to be launched by 2007.
- 74th Street in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City has been renamed 74th Street Kalpana Chawla Way in her honor.
- The University of Texas at Arlington (where Chawla obtained a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering in 1984) opened a dormitory named in her honor, Kalpana Chawla Hall, in 2004.
- Kalpana Chawla Award award was instituted by the government of Karnataka in 2004 for young women scientists
- The girls hostel at Punjab Engineering College, is named after Kalpana Chawla. In addition, an award of INR twenty five thousand, a medal, and a certificate is instituted for the best student in Aeronautical engineering department
- NASA has dedicated a super computer to Kalpana.
- One of Florida Institute of Technology's student apartment complexes, Columbia Village Suites, has halls named after each of the astronauts, including Chawla.
- NASA Mars Exploration Rover mission has named seven peaks in a chain of hills, named the Columbia Hills, after each of the seven astronauts lost in the Columbia shuttle disaster, including Chawla hill after Kalpana Chawla.
- Steve Morse from the band Deep Purple created a song called "Contact Lost" in memory of the Columbia tragedy along with her interest in the band. The song can be found on the album Bananas.
- Kalpana Chawla has inspired several young Indians aspiring to be astronauts.
- Her brother, Sanjay Chawla, remarked "To me, my sister is not dead. She is immortal. Isn't that what a star is? She is a permanent star in the sky. She will always be up there where she belongs."
- Writer Peter David named a shuttlecraft, the Chawla, after the astronaut in his 2007 Star Trek novel, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Before Dishonor.

Source Wikipedia

Laurel Blair Salton Clark
Laurel Blair Salton Clark (March 10, 1961 - February 1, 2003) was a medical doctor, United States Navy Captain, NASA astronaut and Space Shuttle mission specialist who was killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

Early life
Clark was born in Ames, Iowa, but considered Racine, Wisconsin to be her hometown. She is survived by her husband, Jon, and son Iain. Clark enjoyed scuba diving, hiking, camping, biking, parachuting, flying, and traveling. Clark was a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority.

She held an FCC issued Technician Class amateur radio license with the call sign KC5ZSU.

Education
- 1979: Graduated from William Horlick High School, Racine, Wisconsin
- 1983: Received bachelor of science degree in zoology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
- 1987: Received doctorate in medicine from the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Organizations
- Aerospace Medical Association, Society of U.S. Naval Flight Surgeons.

Awards
- Navy Commendation Medals
- National Defense Medal
- Overseas Service Ribbon

Posthumously awarded:
- the NASA Space Flight Medal
- the NASA Distinguished Service Medal
- the Defense Distinguished Service Medal (DDSM)
- the Congressional Space Medal of Honor
- the Purple Heart medal from the U.S. Navy

Tributes
- Asteroid 51827 Laurelclark was named for Clark.
- Clark Hill in the Columbia Hills on Mars was named for Clark
- Clark Hall, in the Columbia Village apartments, at the Florida Institute of Technology is named after her.
- Dr. Laurel Salton Clark Memorial Fountain, in Racine, WI
- Laurel B. Clark and David M. Brown Aerospace Medicine Academic Center, located at the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute

Military career
During medical school she did active duty training with the Diving Medicine Department at the Naval Experimental Diving Unit in March 1987. After completing medical school, Clark underwent postgraduate medical education in pediatrics from 1987 to 1988 at the National Naval Medical Center. The following year she completed Navy undersea medical officer training at the Naval Undersea Medical Institute in Groton, Connecticut and diving medical officer training at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Panama City, Florida. Clark was designated a Radiation Health Officer and Undersea Medical Officer. She was then assigned as the Submarine Squadron Fourteen Medical Department Head in Holy Loch, Scotland. During that assignment she dove with Navy divers and Naval Special Warfare Unit Two SEALs and performed many medical evacuations from US submarines. After two years of operational experience she was designated as a Naval Submarine Medical Officer and Diving Medical Officer.

Clark underwent six months of aeromedical training at the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute in Pensacola, Florida and was designated as a Naval Flight Surgeon. She was stationed at MCAS Yuma, Arizona and assigned as Flight Surgeon for a Marine Corps AV-8B Night Attack Harrier Squadron (VMA 211). She made several deployments, including one overseas to the Western Pacific, practiced medicine in austere environments, and flew on multiple aircraft. Her squadron won the Marine Attack Squadron of the year for its successful deployment. She was then assigned as the Group Flight Surgeon for the Marine Aircraft Group (MAG 13).

Before her selection as an astronaut candidate she served as a Flight Surgeon for the Naval Flight Officer advanced training squadron (VT-86) in Pensacola, Florida. Clark was Board Certified by the National Board of Medical Examiners and held a Wisconsin Medical License. Her military qualifications included Radiation Health Officer, Undersea Medical Officer, Diving Medical Officer, Submarine Medical Officer, and Naval Flight Surgeon. She was a Basic Life Support Instructor, Advanced Cardiac Life Support Provider, Advanced Trauma Life Support Provider, and Hyperbaric Chamber Advisor.

NASA career
Selected by NASA in April 1996, Clark reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1996. After completing two years of training and evaluation, she was qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist. From July 1997 to August 2000 Clark worked in the Astronaut Office Payloads Habitability Branch. Clark flew aboard STS-107, logging 15 days, 22 hours, and 20 minutes in space.

Space flight experience
STS-107 Columbia - The 16-day flight was a dedicated science and research mission. Working 24 hours a day, in two alternating shifts, the crew successfully conducted approximately 80 experiments. Clark's bioscience experiments included gardening in space, as she discussed only days before her death in an interview with Milwaukee media near her Wisconsin hometown. The STS-107 mission ended abruptly on February 1, 2003, when Columbia and her crew perished during re-entry, 16 minutes before scheduled landing. According to the on-board videotape recovered in the debris, just before her death Clark participated in what may well be the most poignant conversation in the history of spaceflight. As re-entry began, Mission Control asked her to perform some small task. She replied that she was currently occupied but would get to it in a minute.

"Don't worry about it," she was told. "You have all the time in the world."

Clark's final message to her friends and family was through an email sent from Columbia.

Quote
"Life continues in lots of places -- and life is a magical thing."
Laurel Clark, in reference to her rose bushes.

Source wikipedia

Richard Douglas Husband
Richard Douglas "Rick" Husband (July 12, 1957 - February 1, 2003) was an astronaut and the space shuttle commander of STS-107 (Columbia) who was killed when the craft disintegrated after reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. Husband is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Background
Husband was born in Amarillo, Texas. He attended Belmar Elementary, Crockett Junior High School, and he graduated from Amarillo High School in 1975. Husband received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Texas Tech University in 1980, and a master of science degree also in mechanical engineering from California State University, Fresno in 1990. His wife Evelyn details her Christian life with Rick and his struggles to fulfill his lifelong dream to become an astronaut in the 2004 book "High Calling: The Courageous Life and Faith of Space Shuttle Columbia Commander Rick Husband" by Evelyn Husband and co-written by Donna VanLiere. The Husbands had two children, a daughter Laura and a son Matthew. Evelyn Husband-Thompson later remarried in January of 2008 to Bill Thompson and was the keynote speaker for the memorial ceremony at the Astronaut Memorial "Space Mirror" at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, five years after the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy. (Source-Floridy Today, February 1, 2008)

U.S. Air Force career
After graduating from Texas Tech University, Husband was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force and attended pilot training at Vance Air Force Base (AFB) in Oklahoma. He finished his training there in October 1981, and was assigned to F-4 Phantom II training at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida. After completion of F-4 training in September 1982, Husband was assigned to Moody Air Force Base in Georgia flying the F-4E. From September to November 1985, he attended F-4 Instructor School at Homestead AFB and was assigned as an F-4E instructor pilot and academic instructor at George AFB, California in December 1985.

In December 1987, Husband was assigned to Edwards Air Force Base in California, where he attended the USAF Test Pilot School. Upon completion of test pilot school, Husband served as a test pilot flying the F-4 and all five models of the F-15 Eagle. In the F-15 Combined Test Force, Husband was the program manager for the Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 increased performance engine, and also served as the F-15 Aerial Demonstration Pilot.

In June 1992, Husband was assigned to the Aircraft and Armament Evaluation Establishment at Boscombe Down, England, as an exchange test pilot with the Royal Air Force. At Boscombe Down, Husband was the Tornado GR1 and GR4 Project Pilot and served as a test pilot in the Hawk, Hunter, Buccaneer, Jet Provost, Tucano, and Harvard. He logged over 3800 hours of flight time in more than 40 different types of aircraft. After his death on STS-107 he was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart medal.

NASA career
Husband was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in December 1994. He reported to the Johnson Space Center in March 1995 to begin a year of training and evaluation. Upon completion of training, Husband was named the Astronaut Office representative for Advanced Projects at Johnson Space Center, working on Space Shuttle Upgrades, the Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) and studies to return to the Moon and travel to Mars. Most recently, he served as Chief of Safety for the Astronaut Office. He flew as pilot on STS-96 in 1999, and logged 235 hours and 13 minutes in space. Husband was later assigned to command the crew of STS-107 which was launched early in 2003.

Shuttle missions
- STS-96 (May 27 to June 6, 1999) aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery was a 10-day mission during which the crew performed the first docking with the International Space Station and delivered four tons of logistics and supplies in preparation for the arrival of the first crew to live on the station early next year. The mission was accomplished in 153 Earth orbits, traveling 4 million miles in 9 days, 19 hours and 13 minutes.

- STS-107 (January 16 to February 1, 2003) aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia was a 16 day mission during which the crew performed over 80 experiments testing applications of microgravity to gain insight into the environment of space and improve life on Earth as well as enable future space exploration. The mission ended in tragedy on the morning of February 1 when the shuttle disintegrated upon reentry killing all crew members (see Space Shuttle Columbia disaster).

Tributes
- Husband Hall, in the Columbia Village apartments, at the Florida Institute of Technology.
- Husband Hill, part of the Columbia Hills on Mars.
- Asteroid 51823 Rickhusband.
- Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport, in his hometown of Amarillo, Texas.
- Husband Auditorium, Squadron Officer School building, Maxwell AFB, AL.
- Rick Husband Drive, El Paso, Texas.

Quotes
Husband describes how he became a shuttle commander having flown in only one other space flight:

- "I think a lot of it has to do with being in the right place at the right time."

Source Wikipedia

William Cameron McCool
William Cameron "Willie" McCool (September 23, 1961 - February 1, 2003) was a United States Navy Commander, NASA astronaut and the Space Shuttle pilot of Columbia mission STS-107. He was killed when the craft disintegrated during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

Quote
- From our orbital vantage point, we observe an earth without borders, full of peace, beauty and magnificence, and we pray that humanity as a whole can imagine a borderless world as we see it and strive to live as one in peace.

Personal data
McCool was born 23 September 1961 in San Diego, California, and died on 1 February 2003 over the southern United States when Space Shuttle Columbia and her crew perished during entry, 16 minutes prior to scheduled landing. He is survived by his wife and children. He enjoyed running, mountain biking, back country hiking camping, swimming, playing guitar, and chess. His favorite song was "Imagine" by John Lennon which was played during the space mission. His favorite band was Radiohead, and the song "Fake Plastic Trees" was also played by mission control as a wake-up call.

Experience
McCool completed flight training in August 1986 and was assigned to Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 129 at Whidbey Island, Washington, for initial EA-6B Prowler training. His first operational tour was with Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 133, where he made two deployments aboard USS Coral Sea (CV-43) to the Mediterranean Sea, and received designation as a wing qualified landing signal officer (LSO). In November 1989, he was selected for the Naval Postgraduate School Test Pilot School (TPS) Cooperative Education Program. After graduating from TPS in June 1992, he worked as TA-4J and EA-6B test pilot in Flight Systems Department of Strike Aircraft Test Directorate at Patuxent River, Maryland. He was responsible for the management and conduct of a wide variety of projects, ranging from airframe fatigue life studies to numerous avionics upgrades. His primary efforts, however, were dedicated to flight test of the Advanced Capability (ADVCAP) EA-6B. Following his Patuxent River tour, McCool returned to Whidbey Island, and was assigned to Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 132 aboard USS Enterprise (CVN-65). He served as Administrative and Operations Officer with the squadron through their work-up cycle, receiving notice of NASA selection while embarked on Enterprise for her final pre-deployment at-sea period.

McCool accumulated over 2,800 hours flight experience in 24 aircraft and over 400 carrier arrestments.

NASA experience
Selected by NASA in April 1996, McCool reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1996. He completed two years of training and evaluation, and was qualified for flight assignment as a pilot. Initially assigned to the Computer Support Branch, McCool also served as Technical Assistant to the Director of Flight Crew Operations, and worked Shuttle cockpit upgrade issues for the Astronaut Office. He was the pilot on STS-107, logging 15 days, 22 hours and 20 minutes in space.

Space flight experience
STS-107 Columbia (January 16 to February 1, 2003). The 16-day flight was a dedicated science and research mission. Working 24 hours a day, in two alternating shifts, the crew successfully conducted approximately 80 experiments. The STS-107 mission ended abruptly on 1 February 2003 when Space Shuttle Columbia and her crew perished during entry, 16 minutes before scheduled landing.

Education
- 1979: Graduated from Coronado High School, Lubbock, Texas
- 1983: Received a bachelor of science degree in applied science from the US Naval Academy
- 1985: Received a master of science degree in computer science from the University of Maryland, College Park
- 1992: Received a master of science degree in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1992.

Organizations
- U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association.

Awards
- Posthumously awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal
- the NASA Distinguished Service Medal
- the Defense Distinguished Service Medal (DDSM)
- the Congressional Space Medal of Honor
- Posthumously awarded the Purple Heart medal from the U.S. Navy

Special honors
- Eagle Scout
- Served as team captain of the US Naval Academy Cross Country team his senior year
- Graduated second of 1,083 in the Class of 1983 at the US Naval Academy
- Presented "Outstanding Student" and "Best DT-II Thesis" awards as graduate of U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, Class 101
- Awarded Navy Commendation Medal
- Awarded Navy Achievement Medal

Tributes
- Asteroid 51829 Williemccool was posthumously named for McCool
- McCool Hill in the Columbia Hills on Mars was posthumously named for McCool
- McCool Hall, in the Columbia Village apartments, at the Florida Institute of Technology is named after him.
- Guam South Elementary Middle School, a DODEA school in Santa Rita, Guam, was renamed Cdr. William C. McCool Elementary Middle School on August 29, 2003.
- Willie McCool Track and Field at Coronado High School in Lubbock, Texas, was posthumously named for McCool.
- Willie McCool Memorial dedicated on Saturday, May 7, 2005 at Huneke Park at 82nd and Quaker Avenue in Lubbock, Texas.
- The William McCool Science Center, located on the campus of the Frank Lamping Elementary School in Henderson, Nevada, is a facility where elementary students throughout the Clark County School District have an opportunity to learn about space and other fields of science.
- A Gawad Kalinga village in Moncada, Tarlac, Philippines, will be named "USN Commander Willie McCool GK Village".
- In the Star Trek book Mirror Universe - Glass Empires, the shuttlecraft of the U.S.S. Defiant in the short story "Age of the Empress" is named the McCool.
- McCool field at Newport Training Command, Newport Rhode Island is named after him.
- The Willie McCool Monument was dedicated on December 2, 2007 at the U.S. Naval Academy Golf Course. The monument stands where Willie would have been 16 minutes from the finish line during his fastest race on Navy's home course.
- Willie McCool Memorial Air Field located in North Las Vegas, Nevada was posthumously named for McCool on October 23, 2004.

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Ilan Ramon
Ilan Ramon (June 20, 1954 - February 1, 2003) was a fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force, and later the first Israeli astronaut. Ramon was the space shuttle payload specialist of STS-107, the fatal mission of Columbia, where he and six other crew members were killed in a re-entry accident over Palestine, Texas. Ramon is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Personal life
Ramon was born in Ramat Gan, Israel and grew up in Beersheba. His mother and grandmother are survivors of Auschwitz concentration camp.

Although a secular Jew, Ramon sought to follow Jewish observances while in orbit. In an interview he said, "I feel I am representing all Jews and all Israelis". He was the first spaceflight participant to request kosher food.

He also gathered rabbinic opinions from the local Chabad-Lubavitch representative Rabbi Zvi Konikov, about observing the Jewish Sabbath (Shabbat) while in space, since the period between sunrises in orbit is approximately 90 minutes. This later became famous by the words "Jerusalem we have a problem" (said in Rabbi Konikov's speech at the Kennedy Space Center Memorial for Columbia on February 7, 2003).

Aboard STS-107, Ramon carried a pencil sketch, "Moon Landscape", drawn by 14-year-old Petr Ginz, who died in Auschwitz. Ramon also took with him a microfiche copy of the Torah (from the Holocaust) given to him by Israeli president Moshe Katsav. Ramon asked the 1939 Club, a Holocaust survivor organization in Los Angeles, for a symbol of the Holocaust to take into outer space with him. A barbed wire Mezuzah by San Francisco Artist Aimee Golant was selected. Ramon also took with him a dollar of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson.

Ramon and the rest of the Columbia crew died over Texas in the Southern United States during entry into Earth's atmosphere, 16 minutes prior to scheduled landing. He is survived by his wife Rona and their four children.

Education
Ramon graduated from high school in 1972. In 1987, he graduated with a B.Sc. in electronics and computer engineering from Tel-Aviv University, Israel.

Air Force career
Ramon was a Colonel (Aluf Mishne) and fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force, with thousands of hours flying experience. In 1980, he was in the first group of Israeli pilots to fly the newly purchased F-16s. In 1981, he took part in the bombing of Iraq's unfinished Osiraq nuclear reactor (Operation Opera).

In 1974, Ramon graduated as a fighter pilot from the Israel Air Force (IAF) Flight School. From 1974-1976 he participated in A-4 Basic Training and Operations. 1976-1980 was spent in Mirage III-C training and operations. In 1980, as one of the IAF's establishment team of the first F-16 Squadron in Israel, he attended the F-16 Training Course at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. From 1981-1983, he served as the Deputy Squadron Commander B, F-16 Squadron. After attending the University of Tel Aviv, he served as Deputy Squadron Commander A, F-4 Phantom Squadron (1988-1990). During 1990, he attended the Squadron Commanders Course. From 1990-1992, he served as Squadron Commander, F-16 Squadron. From 1992-1994, he was Head of the Aircraft Branch in the Operations Requirement Department. In 1994, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel and assigned as Head of the Department of Operational Requirement for Weapon Development and Acquisition. He stayed at this post until 1998.

Colonel Ramon accumulated over 3,000 flight hours on the A-4, Mirage III-C, and F-4, and over 1,000 flight hours on the F-16.

NASA experience

NASA on-ground trainings
In 1997, Colonel Ramon was selected as a Payload Specialist. He was designated to train as prime for a space shuttle mission with a payload that included a multispectral camera for recording desert aerosol (dust). In July 1998, he reported for training at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, where he trained until 2003. He flew aboard STS-107, logging 15 days, 22 hours and 20 minutes in space.

Space flight experience
STS-107 Columbia (January 16 - February 1, 2003). The 16-day flight was a dedicated science and research mission. Working 24 hours a day, in two alternating shifts, the crew successfully conducted approximately 80 experiments. The STS-107 mission ended abruptly when Space Shuttle Columbia was destroyed and its crew perished during re-entry, 16 minutes before scheduled landing.

Awards and honors
Military decorations:
- Yom Kippur War (1973)
- Operation Peace of the Galilee (1982)
- F-16 1,000 Flight Hours (1992).

Posthumously awarded:
- NASA Space Flight Medal
- NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal
- Congressional Space Medal of Honor
- Chief Of Staff Medal of Appreciation

Commemoration
- Asteroid 51828 Ilanramon
- Ramon Hill, in Columbia Hills, Mars
- Ramon Hall, in the Columbia Village apartments, Florida Institute of Technology
- Ilan Ramon youth physics center, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheba, Israel
- Ramon Control Tower, Ben-Gurion Airport, Israel
- Ilan Ramon Boulevard, Vaughan, Ontario
- Ramon Park, Givat Shmuel, Israel
- Ilan Ramon Park, space-themed playground in Beersheba, Israel
- Ilan Ramon AZA #380 in Boulder, CO & Ilan Ramon BBYO #5378 in Oviedo, FL

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