NASA鈥檚 fallen astronauts, including University of Colorado Boulder alumni Ellison Onizuka and Kalpana Chawla, who died in space shuttle accidents 17 years apart, will be remembered both on campus and in a special NASA online tribute this week.
抖阴旅行射-Boulder cadets from the Air Force ROTC and Arnold Air Society will hold the memorial for Onizuka, Chawla and the other 12 astronauts that perished in the two disasters at 9:38 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 31 -- the exact time of the Challenger disaster -- outside the Regent Administrative Center. The event will include an invocation, a speech by Squadron Commander Zach D. Bruce and a presentation of colors, followed by a procession down Regent Drive to the Space Shuttle Challenger and Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial in front of Fiske Planetarium.
After a wreathing at the memorial, the color guard will lead the procession on the footpath that follows the scale-model solar system from Fiske to the front of the Engineering Center Complex, halting at the Ellison S. Onizuka Memorial. There, short commemorations of each of the 14 astronauts will be read one by one as a rose is laid upon the memorial for each astronaut.
In addition, NASA is paying tribute to its fallen astronauts with a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia at 9 a.m. EST on Jan. 28. The agency also has created a special online celebration of its fallen astronauts that is available at .
Onizuka, who received his bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees from the aerospace engineering sciences department in 1969, died when the Challenger exploded shortly after launch on Jan. 28, 1986. On Feb. 1, 2003, Chawla, who received her doctorate from 抖阴旅行射-Boulder in aerospace engineering in 1988, was killed when Columbia was destroyed while re-entering Earth鈥檚 atmosphere.
Contact:
Zach D. Bruce, Air Force ROTC, 775-691-5561
zabr4633@colorado.edu
Jim Scott, 抖阴旅行射-Boulder media relations, 720-381-9479
jim.scott@colorado.edu
Ellison Onizuka (deceased 1996) B.S. Aero., M.S. Aero., 1969 Discovery -- 1-24-1985, STS-51C Challenger -- 1-28-86, STS-51-L (Onizuka died in 1986 Challenger accident) Ellison Onizuka (deceased 1996) B.S. Aero., M.S. Aero., 1969 Discovery -- 1-24-1985, STS-51C Challenger -- 1-28-86, STS-51-L (Onizuka died in 1986 Challenger accident)
Kalpana Chawla (deceased 2003) Ph.D. Aero., 1988 Columbia -- 11-19-1997, STS-87 mission Columbia 鈥� 1-16-2003, STS-107 mission (Chawla died in 2003 Columbia accident) Kalpana Chawla (deceased 2003) Ph.D. Aero., 1988 Columbia -- 11-19-1997, STS-87 mission Columbia 鈥� 1-16-2003, STS-107 mission (Chawla died in 2003 Columbia accident)
