NASA To Hold Special Event To Remember Apollo 1, Challenger, Columbia Disasters

NASA’s various facilities across different parts of the country will hold special events to honor the individuals who lost their lives during the Apollo 1, Space Shuttle Challenger and Space Shuttle Columbia disasters. The events will be held on the agency’s yearly Day of Remembrance on Thursday.

The events will be kicked off by an observance ceremony at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on Jan. 30, NASA confirmed in a press release. It will begin at 1 p.m. EST and will be led by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine along with other senior officials of the agency.

It will be followed by a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier before honoring the crew members of Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia.

The Day of Remembrance will also be observed by NASA’s different centers and facilities. These include the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Johnson Space Center in Houston, the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. Each facility will hold its own activities for the upcoming events.

The events that will be held by NASA in its various facilities will be open to the public.

NASA’s annual Day of Remembrance was established to honor the members of the agency who lost their lives while furthering the goal of space exploration. These include the astronauts of Apollo 1, which was the first crewed mission under the agency’s Apollo spaceflight program. On Jan. 27, 1967, a rehearsal test was carried out in preparation for the actual launch. During the test, a cabin fire occurred, which killed all three crew members of Apollo 1.

This unfortunate incident was followed by the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, which occurred on Jan. 28, 1986. Shortly after taking off, the spacecraft broke apart and disintegrated, instantly killing all seven crew members. These include five astronauts from NASA, a payload specialist and a civilian school teacher.

On Feb. 1, 2003, NASA was hit by another disaster after the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere. It was the 113th mission for the Space Shuttle program. The incident led to the deaths of all seven of the spacecraft’s crew.