Kennedy Space Center continues to make strides in exploration without forgetting the hard-earned lessons of the past, former astronaut Bob Cabana, director of NASA’s primary launch site, said during a ceremony marking Remembrance Day.
“I think it’s really important that we take time to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the quest to explore,” Cabana said. “We want to make sure that we learn from the mistakes we made in the past so we don’t make the same mistakes again as we move forward. We’ve gotten better and their sacrifice was not in vain because we’ve gone on and done better things and we’re going to continue that as we continue to explore.”
Cabana was joined at the Space Mirror Memorial by Janet Petro, Kennedy’s deputy director. The two walked a wreath beneath umbrellas to the base of the mirror at Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor Complex during a brief ceremony. The 42.5-feet-high, 50-foot-wide black granite memorial is engraved with the names of 20 people who were lost in the cause of space exploration, including the crews of Apollo 1, Challenger’s STS-51L and Columbia’s STS-107 missions.
Charles Bolden, NASA administrator and also a former astronaut, marked the day at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, the resting place of some of the lost astronauts. He said today’s missions show that the promise of exploration is being fulfilled thanks in part to the sacrifices made by the crews.
“Today, their legacy lives on as the International Space Station fulfills its promise to help us learn to live and work in space and move farther into the solar system,” Bolden said in a statement. “And we honor them by making our dreams of a better tomorrow reality and by acting to improve life for all of humanity.”
