Johnson’s Day of Remembrance Ceremony (Watch Now!)
On Jan. 27, NASA’s Johnson Space Center held a Day of Remembrance ceremony in the Memorial Tree Grove to commemorate the men and women lost in the agency’s space exploration program by celebrating their lives, their bravery, and advancements in human spaceflight. Speakers included Johnson Director Vanessa Wyche, NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, and former Johnson Director George W.S. Abbey.
“Today’s ceremony is not simply a time to commemorate our fallen astronaut heroes, but a time to reflect on why we pursue this mission and everything the extended NASA family has sacrificed to achieve it,” Wyche said. “At NASA, we are exploring low-Earth orbit today with missions to the International Space Station and enabling commercialization of low-Earth orbit, and we’re returning to the Moon to learn to live on other planets for the benefit of all humanity. As we push forward to the Moon and continue missions to the space station, it is vital that we always remember and implement the lessons of the past in our preparations.”
Before the astronaut families and Johnson leadership team placed roses at the trees, the Texas A&M Squadron 17 performed Echo Taps for the assembled crowd.
Watch highlights from the ceremony below.
These astronauts and their families will always be a part of the NASA family, and we will continue to honor their contributions. Our Day of Remembrance commemorates not only the men and women lost in NASA's space exploration program and their courage, but celebrates human space exploration since then.
Apollo 1 (Jan. 27, 1967): Astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White Jr., and Roger B. Chaffee.
Challenger (Jan. 28, 1986): Astronauts Francis R. "Dick" Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Judith A. Resnik, Ronald E. McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, Gregory B. Jarvis, and S. Christa McAuliffe
Columbia (Feb. 1, 2003): Astronauts Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, Michael P. Anderson, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel B. Clark, and Ilan Ramon
Images and multimedia from this year’s agencywide events will be added to NASA’s online image and video library.
The agency also is paying tribute to its fallen astronauts with special online content here: