NASA Honors Fallen Astronauts, Pilots On Day Of Remembrance 2020

NASA is observing the Day of Remembrance to honor the members of the agency who died while on missions to advance to new frontiers. This includes pilots as well as crewmembers of the Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia disasters.

Day Of Remembrance

Every January, NASA honors the men and women who sacrificed their lives in the name of discovery and exploration. For the Day of Remembrance this year, events are scheduled in various NASA facilities, where members of the public can also participate.

In his message for the occasion, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine called for a moment to pause and reflect on the legacy of the fallen amid all the excitement for the next era of exploration. According to Bridenstine, the event is an opportunity to look back at the lessons that were learned thanks to their sacrifice.

“These men and women laid down their lives in the most noble of goals: the pursuit of truth and understanding,” Bridenstine said. “Although their quest for knowledge was peaceful, fate ripped them from us, never to be returned. We mourn their tragic loss, and we pledge to recommit ourselves to the cause for which they gave their lives.”

Safety Case Study

In his message, Bridenstine also announced that NASA leadership has decided to make all civil servants take an annual safety training together with the observation of the Day of Remembrance starting this year. This means that NASA civil servants will soon receive a case study of an accident to be reviewed and discussed among the teams. This year, the case study is about the Apollo 1 disaster.

“Next year a different case study of another accident will be sent to ensure these lessons will never be forgotten,” Bridenstine said. "As we work to return human spaceflight to our nation this year by once again launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil, it is vital that we continue to implement the lessons of the past into our preparations."

Fallen Friends And Colleagues

The Day of Remembrance honors the crewmembers who were lost to the Apollo 1, Columbia and Challenger disasters. The Apollo 1 disaster, which took place on Jan. 27, 1967, took the lives of veteran astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee when a fire broke out in their command module. This disaster led to major designs and changes that made the Apollo spacecraft safer for future journeys.

Two decades later on Jan. 28, 1986, all seven crewmembers of the Shuttle Challenger perished after a booster engine failed and the spacecraft broke apart just 73 seconds after launching. On the other hand, the Columbia was already returning home and was only 16 minutes away from landing on Feb. 1, 2003 when a hole in one of the shuttle's wings caused the orbiter to break up upon re-entry.

NASA Armstrong is also honoring the lives of three pilots who died at a NASA or National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) aircraft accident. These are Howard “Tick” Lilly, who was the first NACA pilot to die in the line of duty in 1948, Joseph Walker, who died during a mission piloting the F-104 and, Richard Gray, who was fatally injured during a pilot proficiency flight in 1982.