Day Of Remembrance Set For Jan 31

NASA will honor members of the NASA family, including the crews of Apollo 1 and space shuttles Challenger and Columbia, who lost their lives while furthering the cause of exploration and discovery during the agency's annual Day of Remembrance on Tuesday, Jan. 31.

On the Day of Remembrance, NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot, and other agency senior officials, will hold an observance and wreath-laying at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia starting at 11 a.m. EST.

Various NASA centers will hold observances on and leading up to the Day of Remembrance for the public, employees and the families of those lost in service to America’s space program.

NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 1 tragedy at 10 on Thursday, Jan. 26, at the Astronauts Memorial Foundation hall in the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

Also on Thursday, employees at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans unveiled a banner honoring Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia crews.

On Friday, Jan. 27, Kennedy held a public ceremony for the official opening of an Apollo 1 tribute at the Apollo/Saturn V Center of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

The agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, will observe the NASA Day of Remembrance with a candle-lighting ceremony for employees, as well as a public event at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Marshall's official visitor center, at 10 a.m. CST on Jan. 31.

NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston held a commemoration for employees at the Astronaut Memorial Grove to honor Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia crews, followed by astronaut Edgar Mitchell’s memorial tree planting ceremony on Tuesday.

(Source: NASA news release. Images from file)

FMI: www.nasa.gov/dor2017