Space Mirror Memorial Honors 25 Fallen U.S. Space Program Participants

Summary: Summary: The John F. Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex's Space Mirror Memorial commemorates 25 lives lost by participants in various U.S. space programs.

The Space Mirror Memorial currently honors 25 fallen participants in various space programs of the United States; (first panel from left) Space Shuttle Discovery member M.L. Sonny Carter (upper), Theodore C. Freeman (lower); (second and third panels from left) Space Shuttle Challenger mission members Francis "Dick" Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik, Ronald E. McNair, S. Christa McAuliffe, Gregory B. Jarvis; (fourth and third panels from right, upper) Space Shuttle Columbia mission members Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, Michael P. Anderson, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel B. Clark, Ilan Ramon; (third panel from right, lower) Apollo 1 mission members Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White II, Roger B. Chaffee; (second panel from right, upper); Project Gemini astronauts Elliot M. See Jr. and Charles A. Bassett II; (second panel from right, lower) U.S. Air Force astronaut and test pilot Michael J. Adams; (first panel from right, upper) U.S. Air Force astronaut Robert H. Lawrence Jr.; (first panel from right, second from bottom) private astronaut Michael T. Alsbury; (first panel from right, bottom) Apollo program member Clifton C. Williams Jr.: Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022, 15:51, image of Space Mirror Memorial, John F. Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex: Benoît Prieur (1975-), Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, via Wikimedia Commons

The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Visitor Complex's Space Mirror Memorial presently lists 25 honorees who have lost their lives while participating in various space programs of the United States.

The Space Mirror Memorial is maintained by the Astronauts Memorial Foundation (AMF). The nonprofit private foundation was established in 1986 in the wake of the in-flight disintegration of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Space Shuttle Challenger on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 1986, at 11:39 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (16:39:13 Coordinated Universal Time). All seven crew members, comprising six NASA astronauts and one civilian, lost their lives in the disaster.

The Space Mirror Memorial was recognized as a national memorial by a U.S. House of Representatives-originated Joint Resolution of the United States Congress (H.J. 214; Public Law 102-41 102d Congress), approved Wednesday, May 8, 1991, by the House and the Senate and signed into law by 41st U.S. President of the United States (Jan. 20, 1989-Jan. 20, 1993), George Herbert Walker Bush (June 12, 1924-Nov. 30, 2018). The new national memorial was dedicated the next day, Thursday, May 9, 1991, by James Danforth Quayle (born Feb. 4, 1947) as the 44th Vice President of the United States (Jan. 20, 1989-Jan. 20, 1993).

The Space Mirror Memorial presently lists 25 U.S. space program participants who have lost their lives. The names of the Space Mirror Memorial's honorees are cut into the structure's highly polished black granite panels. Honorees who perished in the same missions either share the same panel or appear on adjacent panels. The Space Mirror Memorial's honorees are listed chronologically, according to death date, on the website of The Astronauts Memorial Foundation and the Center for Space Exploration.

Theodore "Ted" Cordy Freeman (Feb. 18, 1930-Oct. 31, 1964) numbered among 14 astronauts whose selection for NASA Astronaut Group 3 was announced in October 1963. He died Halloween, Saturday, Oct. 31, 1964, in a bird strike-caused crash during final approach to landing at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base in Houston, Harris County, southeastern Texas. The engine of the Northrop T-38 Talon supersonic jet trainer flamed from a goose's flight into the jet trainer's port-side air intake. After he ejected, his parachute failed to deploy timely. Impact with the ground fatally fractured his skull and caused severe chest injuries.

Charles "Charlie" Arthur Bassett II (Dec. 30, 1931-Feb. 28, 1966) and Elliot McKay See Jr. (July 23, 1927-Feb. 28, 1966) died Monday, Feb. 28, 1966, in a poor weather-contributing crash of their Northerop T-38 Talon superosnic jet trainer into American aerospace manufacturer McDonnell Aircraft Corporation's Space Center in St. Louis, east central Missouri. Bassett and See had been selected Monday, Nov. 8, 1965, as Gemini 9 mission's pilot and command pilot, respectively.

Virgil "Gus" Ivan Grissom (April 3, 1926-Jan. 27, 1967), Edward "Ed" Higgins White II (Nov. 14, 1930-Jan. 27, 1967) and Roger Bruce Chaffee (Feb. 15, 1935-Jan. 27, 1967) died Friday, Jan. 27, 1967, in a flash fire during a countdown simulation in the Apollo 1 mission capsule, mounted atop its Saturn 1B booster, on Cape Kennedy Launch Pad 34. The spacecraft had been scheduled for a launch date of Tuesday, Feb. 21, 1967. In commemoration of the trio, NASA retired the name Apollo 1.

Clifton Curtis Williams Jr. (Sep. 26, 1932-Oct. 5, 1967) died Thursday, Oct. 5, 1967, in a mechanical failure-induced crash of the Northrop T-38 Talon supersonic jet trainer near Tallahassee, Leon County, Panhandle, northwestern Florida.He had been selected as Lunar Module Pilot in the back-up crew for the Apollo 9 (March 3-13, 1969) human spaceflight.

Michael James Adams (May 5, 1930-Nov. 15, 1967) died Wednesday, Nov. 15, 1967, in a crash of his seventh flight in the North American X-15 hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft. Unejected, he impacted a protected part of the Mojave Desert, sited four miles north of Johannesburg, a small mining town approximately 35 miles northeast of Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) in south central California, according to "Major Michael Adams, USAF: The First In-Flight Fatality of the American Space Program," submitted Jan. 16, 2012, by Michael Kindig to The Historical Marker Database website. He had numbered among eight pilots selected Friday, Nov. 12, 1965, as the first of three groups for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program, a joint project of the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and the the U.S. Department of Defense's (DOD) National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), according to John Uri's "50 Years Ago: NASA Benefits from Manned Orbiting Laboratory Cancellation," posted June 10, 2019, on NASA's website by John Uri, manager of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center's (JSC) History Office.

Robert Henry Lawrence Jr. (Oct. 2, 1935-Dec. 8, 1967) died Friday, Dec. 8, 1967, as the instructor pilot in a crash of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter supersonic air superiority fighter aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) in south central California. Ejected upward from the front seat and majorly injured, test trainee Harvey John Royer (Aug. 29, 2020-May 28, 1931) survived, but the sideways ejection of Lawrence, strapped in the back seat with parachute failure, instantly killed NASA's first African-American astronaut.. He had numbered among four pilots selected Friday, June 30, 1967, as the third of three groups for the MOL program.

The disintegration of Space Shuttle Challenger on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 1986, at 11:39 a.m. Eastern Standard Time EST (16:39:13 Coordinated Universal Time UTC), 73 seconds after liftoff, claimed the lives of all seven of the mission's crew members. The disaster influenced the establishment of the Astronauts Memorial Foundation and inspired the creation of the Space Mirror Memorial. The Challenger's crew comprised Francis Richard "Dick" Scobee (May 19, 1939-Jan. 28, 1986); Michael John Smith (April 30, 1945-Jan. 28, 1986); Ronald Erwin McNair (Oct. 21, 1950-Jan. 28, 1986); Gregory Bruce Jarvis (Aug. 24, 1944-Jan. 28, 1986); Judith Arlene Resnik (April 5, 1949-Jan. 28, 1986); Ellison Shoji Onizuka (June 24, 1946-Jan. 28, 1986), NASA's first Asian-American astronaut; and Sharon Christa McAuliffe (Sep. 2, 1948-Jan. 28, 1986), NASA's first civilian human spaceflight participant.

Manley Lanier "Sonny" Carter Jr. (Aug. 15, 1947-April 5, 1991) died Friday, April 5, 1991, as a passenger, traveling on official NASA business, in a crash of Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 2311 in Brunswick, Glynn County, southeastern Georgia. He had been selected for Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-42, originally scheduled for a launch date of Wednesday, Jan. 22, 1992.

The 28th flight of Space Shuttle Columbia ended disastrously, with the deaths of all seven crew members, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2003, at 8:59 am EST (13:59 UTC) during reentry into Earth's atmosphere over Texas and Louisiana. Columbia's crew comprised Richard "Rick" Douglas Husband (July 12, 1957-Feb. 1, 2003); William "Willie" Cameron McCool (born William Cameron Graham; Sep. 23, 1961-Feb. 1, 2003); David McDowell Brown (April 16, 1956-Feb. 1, 2003); Kalpana Chawla (March 17, 1962-Feb. 1, 2003), first Indian-American female astronaut); Michael Phillip Anderson (Dec. 25, 1959-Feb. 1, 2003); Laurel Blair Salton Clark (March 10, 1961-Feb. 1, 2003); and Ilan Ramon (born Ilan Wolfferman; June 20, 1954-Feb. 1, 2003), first Israeli astronaut.

Michael Tyner Alsbury (March 19, 1975-Oct. 31, 2014) died Halloween, Friday, Oct. 31, 2014, as co-pilot and as Scaled Composites aerospace industry's private astronaut in the in-flight explosion-caused crash of American spaceflight company Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo (SS2) VSS Enterprise. The space tourism-designed suborbital spaceplane crashed in the Mojave Desert near the Mojave Air and Space Port in south central California. The mission's pilot, Scaled Composites astronaut Peter Siebold (born Jan. 1, 1971) survived with severe injuries.

Michale Alsbury qualifies as the Space Mirror Memorial's 25th honoree. The addition of his name to the national memorial was unveiled in a ceremony held Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020.

Created by the Astronauts Memorial Foundation in partnership with Florida Memorial Gardens, the Dignity Memorial Plaque depicts 24 of the 25 fallen U.S. space program participants whose names are inscribed in the Space Mirror Memorial sited on the grounds of the John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Visitor Complex; missing from the plaque is 25th honoree Michael Asbury, whose name addition was unveiled Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020; photo credit NASA/Kim Shiflett; date created 2011-01-27; NASA ID KSC-2011-1212: Not subject to copyright, via NASA Image and Video Librar

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Dedication

This post is dedicated to the memory of our beloved blue-eyed brother, Charles, who guided the creation of the Met Opera and Astronomy posts on Earth and Space News. We memorialized our brother in "Our Beloved Blue-Eyed Brother, Charles, With Whom We Are Well Pleased," published on Earth and Space News on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, an anniversary of our beloved father's death.

Image credits:

The Space Mirror Memorial currently honors 25 fallen participants in various space programs of the United States; (first panel from left) Space Shuttle Discovery mSonny Carter (upper), Theodore C. Freeman (lower); (second and third panels from left) Space Shuttle Challenger mission members Francis "Dick" Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik, Ronald E. McNair, S. Christa McAuliffe, Gregory B. Jarvis; (fourth and third panels from right, upper) Space Shuttle Columbia mission members Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, Michael P. Anderson, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel B. Clark, Ilan Ramon; (third panel from right, lower) Apollo 1 mission members Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White II, Roger B. Chaffee; panel from right, lower) U.S. Air Force astronaut and test pilot Michael J. Adams; (first panel from right, upper) U.S. Air Force astronaut Robert H. Lawrence Jr.; (first panel from right, second from bottom) private astronaut Michael T. Alsbury; (first panel from right, bottom) Apollo program member Clifton C. Williams Jr.: Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022, 15:51, image of Space Mirror Memorial, John F. Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex: Benoît Prieur (1975-), Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kennedy_Space_Center_Visitor_Complex_in_February_2022_(119).jpeg

Created by the Astronauts Memorial Foundation in partnership with Florida Memorial Gardens, the Dignity Memorial Plaque depicts 24 of the 25 fallen U.S. space program participants whose names are inscribed in the Space Mirror Memorial sited on the grounds of the John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Visitor Complex; missing from the plaque is 25th honoree Michael Asbury, whose name addition was unveiled Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020; photo credit NASA/Kim Shiflett; date created 2011-01-27; NASA ID KSC-2011-1212: Not subject to copyright, via NASA Image and Video Library @ https://images.nasa.gov/details/KSC-2011-1212

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