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ROOKIEIn Memoriam—
ROOKIEIn Memoriam—Other·🇮🇱 Israel·Born 1954
Ilan Ramon
First Israeli astronaut.
384h
Hours in Space
1
Missions
0
EVAs
—
EVA Time
I feel I am representing all Jews and all Israelis.
There is no better place to emphasize the unity of people in the world than flying in space. We are all the same people, we are all human beings, and I believe that most of us, almost all of us, are good people.
Biography
First Israeli astronaut. Fighter pilot who perished in the Columbia disaster. Only foreign recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
Before NASAColonel and F-16 fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force; one of the youngest pilots in the 1981 Operation Opera strike on Iraq's Osirak reactor.
Notable Missions
STS-107 (Columbia)
Beyond the Mission
Causes They Champion
Holocaust remembranceIsraeli science education (the Ramon Foundation continues his legacy)
Languages
HebrewEnglish
Awards & Honors
- Congressional Space Medal of Honor (posthumous — first foreign recipient)
- NASA Space Flight Medal (posthumous)
Fun fact
Son of an Auschwitz survivor, he carried a Holocaust-era miniature Torah scroll and Petr Ginz's 'Moon Landscape' drawing into orbit, and was the first astronaut to observe Shabbat in space.
Item flown to space
Petr Ginz's pencil drawing 'Moon Landscape' from Yad Vashem and a miniature Holocaust-era Torah scroll.
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