A Day of Rememberance

AmericaSpace Note: 44 years ago today at 6:31 PM EST, the Apollo 1 crew of Grissom, White and Chaffee was lost to a cabin fire. 25 years ago tomorrow morning, the Challenger crew of Sobee, Smith, McNair, Onizuka, Jarvis, McAuliffe and Resnik was lost during launch. And on February 1st, 2003, the Columbia crew of Husband, McCool, Anderson, Brown, Chawla, Clark and Ramon was lost during re-entry.

Gus Grissom once said that the conquest of space is worth the risk of life, that our God-given curiosity will force us to go there ourselves because in the final analysis only man can evaluate exploration in terms understandable to other men. By continuing to explore, we honor their lives while remembering their passing. Perhaps someday there will be stations on the Moon named “Apollo 1”, “Challenger” and “Columbia”.

Today, NASA Administrator Bolden sent a message to the NASA family honoring the lost crews of Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia on this Day of Rememberance. His letter is below.

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