The NASA family lost seven of its own on the morning of January 28, 1986, when a booster engine failed, causing the Shuttle Challenger to break apart just 73 seconds after launch. The crew of STS-51-L: Front row from left, Mike Smith, Dick Scobee, Ron McNair. Back row from left, Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Greg Jarvis, Judith Resnik. Photo courtesy of NASA

MEDIA RELEASE

On January 27, 1967, Apollo 1’s crew–Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White II and Roger B. Chaffee–was killed when a fire erupted in their capsule during testing. Apollo 1 was originally designated AS-204 but following the fire, the astronauts’ widows requested that the mission be remembered as Apollo 1 and following missions would be numbered subsequent to the flight that never made it into space. Photo courtesy of NASA

WASHINGTON – NASA will pay tribute to the crews of Apollo 1 and space shuttles Challenger and Columbia, as well as other NASA colleagues, during the agency’s Day of Remembrance on Friday, Feb. 1, the 10th anniversary of the Columbia accident.

NASA’s Day of Remembrance honors members of the NASA family who lost their lives while furthering the cause of exploration and discovery. Flags across the agency will be flown at half-staff in their memory.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and other NASA senior officials will hold an observance at the astronaut memorial at Arlington National Cemetery Friday morning.

At 10 a.m. EST, NASA Television will provide live coverage of a wreath-laying ceremony at the Space Mirror Memorial located in the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. The observance is hosted by the Astronauts Memorial Foundation.

NASA and the world lost seven brave explorers on Feb. 1, 2003, when the shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry. In this photo from a roll of unprocessed film recovered by searchers, the STS-107 crew strikes a flying pose for their traditional in-flight crew portrait. Top row, from left: David M. Brown, mission specialist; William C. McCool, pilot; and Michael P. Anderson, payload commander. Bottom row, from left: Kalpana Chawla, mission specialist; Rick D. Husband, mission commander; Laurel B. Clark, mission specialist; and Ilan Ramon, payload specialist from the Israeli Space Agency. Photo courtesy of NASA

Ceremony speakers include NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot; William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations; Robert Cabana, director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center; Thad Altman, president and chief executive officer of the Astronauts Memorial Foundation; Jon McBride, chairman of the board of directors of the Astronauts Memorial Foundation; Mick Ukleja, chairman of the board of trustees of the Astronauts Memorial Foundation; Evelyn Husband-Thompson, widow of Col. Rick Husband, who was commander of space shuttle Columbia’s final mission, STS-107, in 2003; and Eileen Collins, commander of shuttle Discovery for the mission in 2005 that returned shuttles to flight after the Columbia accident.

The Astronauts Memorial Foundation is a private, not-for-profit organization which built and maintains the Space Mirror Memorial. The mirror was dedicated in 1991 to honor all astronauts who lost their lives on missions or during training. It has been designated a National Memorial by Congress.

NASA also is paying tribute to the agency’s fallen astronauts with special online content available at: http://go.nasa.gov/XNe5MU