Ranking Member Johnson Statement on NASA’s Day of Remembrance

(Washington, DC) – Today is NASA’s Day of Remembrance, a day designated to honor those NASA employees who lost their lives “while furthering the cause of exploration and discovery.”

Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) issued the following statement:

“This year marks 60 years of America in space. Over those 60 years, we have lost 17 astronauts in the tragic accidents of Apollo 1 and space shuttles Challenger and Columbia. It is with a heavy heart that we honor these American heroes and their families on NASA’s Day of Remembrance. We are forever grateful for their bravery, their dedication, and their sacrifice.”

• On January 27, 1967, Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee were preparing for what was to be the first crewed Apollo flight. The astronauts were sitting atop the launch pad for a pre-launch test when a fire broke out in their Apollo capsule.
• On the morning of January 28, 1986, upon launch of shuttle Challenger, a booster engine failed, causing the shuttle to break apart just 73 seconds after launch. Lost was the crew of STS-51L:  Francis R. (Dick) Scobee; Mike J. Smith; Ronald E. McNair; Ellison S. Onizuka; Judith A. Resnik; Gregory Jarvis; and Teacher-in-Space S. Christa McAuliffe.
• On February 1, 2003, shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry.  Lost was the crew of STS-107: Rick D. Husband; William C. McCool; Michael P. Anderson; David M. Brown; Kalpana Chawla; Laurel B. Clark; and Ilan Ramon from the Israeli Space Agency.

View information about NASA’s 2018 Day of Remembrance here.

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