NASA Remembers Those Lost Pursuing Discovery and Exploration

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Deputy Administrator Lori Garver will lay a wreath at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia at 10 a.m. EST, Thursday, Jan. 27, to commemorate the agency's National Day of Remembrance.

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NASA has an agency-wide Day of Remembrance every January to honor the fallen crews of Apollo 1, space shuttles Challenger and Columbia, and all of those who have given their lives in the cause of exploration.

Journalists who want to attend the wreath-laying ceremony must contact the Arlington National Cemetery public affairs office at [email protected] by 4 p.m., Jan. 26, for access information.

At 10:30 a.m., NASA's Kennedy Space Center Director and former astronaut Bob Cabana will take part in a wreath-laying at the Space Mirror Memorial at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. The ceremony is open to media representatives and the general public.

At NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Center Director Michael L. Coats will be joined by astronaut family members to lay a wreath at the Astronaut Memorial Tree Grove at 11:30 a.m. on Jan. 27. Media representatives interested in covering the memorial should contact the Johnson newsroom by 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 26, at 281-483-5111.

Friday, Jan. 28, marks the 25th anniversary of the Challenger accident. At 9 a.m. EST, the Astronauts Memorial Foundation will hold a remembrance service honoring the STS-51L crew members at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. NASA Television will provide live coverage of the event, which will take place at the visitor complex's Space Mirror Memorial.

Speakers at the event include Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for Space Operations; June Scobee Rodgers, widow of STS-51L Commander Dick Scobee; Robert Cabana, former astronaut and director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center; and Michael McCulley, former astronaut and chairman of the Astronauts Memorial Foundation.

Journalists interested in covering the Jan. 27th wreath-laying or the Jan. 28 memorial should contact Andrea Farmer at 321-449-4318 or Jillian McRae at 321-449-4273 for access information. The public also is invited to attend the service. The Kennedy Visitor Complex will provide flowers for all ceremony guests and visitors throughout the day to place at the memorial.

Challenger's seven astronauts died shortly after launch on Jan. 28, 1986. The crew consisted of Commander Scobee, Pilot Michael J. Smith, Mission Specialists Judith A. Resnik, Ellison S. Onizuka, and Ronald E. McNair, and Payload Specialists Gregory B. Jarvis and Sharon Christa McAuliffe.

The Astronauts Memorial Foundation, a private, not-for-profit organization, built and maintains the Space Mirror Memorial. The memorial was dedicated in 1991 to honor all astronauts who lost their lives on missions or during training.  It since has been designated a National Memorial by Congress.

To view an online tribute, including photographs, videos and information about the crew members on Apollo 1 and shuttle Challenger and Columbia, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/dor11/

For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to streaming video, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

SOURCE NASA