Workers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, will join NASA team members at field centers and facilities across the nation Tuesday, Jan. 31, to honor the crews of Apollo 1 and space shuttles Challenger and Columbia.
NASA’s Day of Remembrance honors members of the NASA family who lost their lives while furthering the cause of exploration and discovery. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 1 launch rehearsal fire, which took the lives of astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Edward White II and Roger Chaffee on Jan. 27, 1967.
Marshall team members will participate in a candle-lighting ceremony beginning at 9 a.m. CST Jan. 31. Marshall Deputy Director Jody Singer; Rick Burt, director of Marshall’s Safety and Mission Assurance Directorate; and former NASA astronaut Robert “Hoot” Gibson will preside over the Marshall ceremony. Singer and Gibson then will lead a public event at 10 a.m. CST at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Marshall’s official visitor center.
Meanwhile, NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot and other agency officials will lay a commemorative wreath at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia starting at 10 a.m. CST. Other NASA centers will hold observances for the public, employees and the families of those lost in service to America’s space program. For complete details, visit:
For NASA Television downlink information, schedule and streaming video, visit:
NASA also will pay tribute to its fallen astronauts with special online content:
Media interested in covering the Marshall candle-lighting should contact Kimberly Newton of the Marshall Office of Communications at 256-544-0034 no later than 4 p.m. Monday, Jan. 30. Those seeking to cover the U.S. Space & Rocket Center event should contact media manager Pat Ammons at 256-721-5429.
Media planning to arrive in time for the Marshall event should report to the Redstone Arsenal Joint Visitor Control Center at Gate 9, Interstate 565 interchange at Research Park Boulevard, by 8 a.m., Jan. 31. Vehicles are subject to a security search at the gate. News media will need photo identification and proof of car insurance.
Kimberly Newton
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
kimberly.d.newton@nasa.gov
Pat Ammons
U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-721-5429
pat.ammons@spacecamp.com