NASA Honors Fallen Heroes on Its Remembrance Day

Every January, NASA dedicates a day to honoring the members of the agency’s family who died during their exploration and discovery missions. The Day of Remembrance will take place today, January 27, 2022, coinciding with the 55th commemoration of the Apollo 1 disaster, which took the lives of three crew members during a launch rehearsal test. NASA Remembrance Day ceremonies will also be held at other NASA facilities. But, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of invited guests is limited, and the event is not open to the media.

NASA Remembrance Day in 2022

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will preside over this year’s observance at Arlington National Cemetery. The observance will commence with a wreath-laying at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, followed by tributes to the Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia crews.

Right after the Arlington ceremony, there will be a panel discussion with NASA personnel on the safety and lessons learned from NASA’s tragedies, in which Nelson will join Pam Melroy, NASA Deputy Administrator, and Bob Cabana, Associate Administrator, in moderating the discussion. It will be live on NASA Television, the website, and the NASA app starting at 3:30 p.m. EST.

Some of the NASA centers that pay tribute to the fallen heroes are:

• Kennedy Space Center, Florida
  In collaboration with The Astronauts Memorial Foundation, NASA Kennedy will hold the observance at the Space Mirror Memorial at Kennedy’s Visitor Complex. There will be limited on-site invited guests. The ceremony will go live online at 10 a.m. on Kennedy’s Facebook channel.
• Johnson Space Center, Houston
  NASA Johnson will have a memorial service at the Astronaut Memorial Grove. The event will include statements from Johnson Center Director Vanessa Wyche, NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, and former Johnson Center Director George Abbey.
• Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama
  NASA Marshall will commemorate the Day of Remembrance with a taped ceremony that will include speeches from Marshall Center Head and the director of Marshall’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance, as well as a minute of silence.
• Glenn Research Center, Cleveland
  Memorial day will be held virtually and limited to Glenn employees only.

There’s always a silver lining

Nelson said, “NASA’s Day of Remembrance is an opportunity to honor members of the NASA family who lost their lives in our shared endeavor to advance exploration and discovery for the good of all humanity.”

Nelson also addressed the lessons to be drawn from these tragedies. “Every day, we have an opportunity to further uplift the legacies of those who gave their lives in pursuit of discovery by taking the next giant leap, meeting every challenge head-on, as they did. In doing so, we also must never forget the lessons learned from each tragedy, and embrace our core value of safety,” he said.

The Apollo 1 tragedy, for example. The investigation into the deadly accident led NASA to a significant improvement in its designs and technical adjustments of the Apollo spacecraft. It counts for safer future trips to the Moon. Then there is also the Challenger, which tomorrow, Jan. 28, 2022, will mark the 36th year since its tragedy. The Challenger crashed in a plume of smoke and fire, killing everyone on board. However, the Challenger disaster taught NASA a valuable lesson. As we reported in our article some time ago:

We cannot become complacent. We cannot be silent when we see something we feel is unsafe. We must allow people to come forward with their concerns without fear of repercussion. -NASA