Mars Exploration News  
Space Shuttle Columbia Crew Memorialized On Mars

As team members gazed at Mars through Spirit's eyes, the Columbia memorial appeared in images returned to Earth, a fitting tribute to their own spirit and dedication.
  • STS-107 Memorial at JSC

  • Washington - Jan 06, 2004
    NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe today announced plans to name the landing site of the Mars Spirit rover in honor of the astronauts who died in the tragic accident of the Space Shuttle Columbia in February. The area in the vast flatland of the Gusev Crater where Spirit landed this weekend will be called the Columbia Memorial Station.

    Since its historic landing, Spirit has been sending extraordinary images of its new surroundings on the red planet over the past few days. Among them, an image of a memorial plaque placed on the spacecraft to Columbia's astronauts and the STS-107 mission.

    The plaque is mounted on the back of Spirit's high-gain antenna, a disc-shaped tool used for communicating directly with Earth. The plaque is aluminum and approximately six inches in diameter. The memorial plaque was attached March 28, 2003, at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Chris Voorhees and Peter Illsley, Mars Exploration Rover engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., designed the plaque.

    "During this time of great joy for NASA, the Mars Exploration Rover team and the entire NASA family paused to remember our lost colleagues from the Columbia mission. To venture into space, into the unknown, is a calling heard by the bravest, most dedicated individuals," said NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe. "As team members gazed at Mars through Spirit's eyes, the Columbia memorial appeared in images returned to Earth, a fitting tribute to their own spirit and dedication. Spirit carries the dream of exploration the brave astronauts of Columbia held in their hearts.

    Spirit successfully landed on Mars Jan. 3. It will spend the next three months exploring the barren landscape to determine if Mars was ever watery and suitable to sustain life. Spirit's twin, Opportunity, will reach Mars on Jan. 25 to begin a similar examination of a site on the opposite side of the planet.

    Community
    Email This Article
    Comment On This Article

    Related Links
    Mars Memorial at JSC
    Mars at JPL
    MERs at Cornell
    SpaceDaily
    Search SpaceDaily
    Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express
    Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
    Lunar Dreams and more



    Memory Foam Mattress Review
    Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
    XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


    Spirit Heading To 'Home Plate'
    Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 09, 2006
    Last week Spirit completed robotic-arm work on "El Dorado." The rover used all three of its spectrometers plus the microscopic imager for readings over the New Year's weekend.









  • Boeing Selects Leader for Nuclear Space Systems Program
  • Boeing-Led Team to Study Nuclear-Powered Space Systems
  • Boeing To Build Space-borne Power Generator
  • New High-Purity Plutonium Sources Produced At Los Alamos

  • SMART-1 Chalks Up Another 2K On The Long Way To The Moon
  • Overall Status, Current Activities And Planned Activities
  • SMART-1 Is Flying At Full Speed
  • SMART-1 Is Changing Thrust Strategy To Avoid Long Eclipses

  • Wanted: 'Space Depot' For The Rocket Builders
  • The Spaceship And The Zeppelin
  • Space Adventures Signs Two For Soyuz Taxi With Option On Two More Seats
  • Space Adventures Claims Two Soyuz Tickets Sold

  • First Detection Of CO In Uranus
  • Pushing Out The Kuiper Belt
  • New Horizons Mission Team Plans Jupiter Encounter
  • Pluto Mission May Be Early Victim Of Growing Budget Crisis

  • Finding JIMO: Jupiter's Icy Moon Orbiter
  • Europa: Frozen Ocean in Motion
  • Io: A Moon On Fire
  • Thirty Four Orbits Later Galileo Checks Out By Jove



  • Saturn To Ring In The New Year
  • Cassini's Huygens Science Teams Begin Final Science Planning
  • Huygens Team Calibrates Science and Mission Plans
  • Titan's Lakes Of Hydrocarbons Makes For Daily Smog Alert

  • New Light-Emitting Transistor Could Revolutionize Electronics Industry
  • World's Biggest Virtual Supercomputer Given The Go-Ahead
  • MSU Grad Student Discovers The Big Indivisible
  • Airborne Laser Optical Link Demonstrator

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement