NASA/Kim Shiflett
Kennedy Space Center workers and guests placed flowers at the Space Mirror Memorial at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida during NASA’s Day of Remembrance on Jan. 26, 2023. The event honored the crews of Apollo 1 and space shuttles Challenger and Columbia, as well as other astronauts who lost their lives in the pursuit of spaceflight.

Each January, NASA pauses to honor members of the NASA family who lost their lives while furthering the cause of exploration and discovery, including the crews of Apollo 1 and space shuttles Challenger and Columbia.

This year, the Day of Remembrance was observed on Jan. 23.

On Jan. 27, 1967, veteran astronaut Gus Grissom, first American spacewalker Ed White, and rookie Roger Chaffee were sitting atop the launch pad for a prelaunch test when a fire broke out in their Apollo capsule. The investigation into the fatal accident led to major design and engineering changes, making the Apollo spacecraft safer for the coming journeys to the Moon.

Just 73 seconds after launch on the morning of Jan. 28, 1986, a booster engine failed and caused the shuttle Challenger to break apart, taking the lives of all seven crewmembers.

President Ronald Reagan eulogized the crew, quoting from John Gillespie Magee’s poem “High Flight”: “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of Earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.’”

The Challenger crew: Mission Specialist Ellison S. Onizuka, Pilot Michael J. Smith, Payload Specialist Christa McAuliffe, Commander Francis R. “Dick” Scobee, Payload Specialist Gregory B. Jarvis, Mission Specialist Judith A. Resnik, and Mission Specialist Ronald E. McNair.

The seven-member crew of the STS-107 mission was just 16 minutes from landing on the morning of Feb. 1, 2003, when Mission Control lost contact with the shuttle Columbia. A piece of foam, falling from the external tank during launch, had opened a hole in one of the shuttle’s wings, leading to the breakup of the orbiter upon re-entry.

Addressing the nation, President George H.W. Bush said, “Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration of discovery and the longing to understand. Our journey into space will go on.”

The Columbia crew: Rick D. Husband, mission commander; Kalpana Chawla, mission specialist; William C. McCool, pilot; David M. Brown, Laurel B. Clark, and Michael P. Anderson, all mission specialists; and Ilan Ramon, payload specialist.

NASA/Keegan Barber
The Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial is seen after a wreath-laying ceremony that was part of NASA’s Day of Remembrance on Jan. 25, 2024, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. The event, traditionally held every year on the fourth Thursday of January, remembers the crews of Apollo 1 and the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia.

“On NASA’s Day of Remembrance, we pause to reflect on the bravery, dedication, and selflessness of the extraordinary individuals who pushed the boundaries of exploration and discovery,” said NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free. “Their legacies remind us of the profound responsibility we have to carry their dreams forward while ensuring safety remains our guiding principle.”

Ceremonies were held at the Space Mirror Memorial at Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor Complex in Florida; Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia; Johnson Space Center in Houston; Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley; Glenn Research Center in Cleveland; Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.; Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.; and Stennis Space Flight Center in Bay St. Louis, Miss.