Space Mirror Memorial Honors Deaths in United States Space Programs

Summary: The Kennedy Space Center's Space Mirror Memorial honors those who have lost their lives while participating in the space programs of the United States.

Space Mirror Memorial on grounds of John F. Kennedy (JFK) Space Center Vistor Complex, with (left) 184-foot-tall, full-scale replica of space shuttle Atlantis' solid rocket boosters and external tank and of Northrop T-38 Talon, a two-seat, twinjet supersonic jet trainer used by NASA as astronaut trainer and as chase plane, displayed at entryway to Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit inside Kennedy Space Center Orbiter Building; Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, 13:56, image: JohnOwen848, CC BY-SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

The John F. Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex includes the Space Mirror Memorial, a national memorial commemorating those who have lost their lives during space programs associated with the United States.

The Astronauts Memorial Foundation (AMF) maintains the Space Mirror Memorial. The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in which all seven crew members were killed in the spacecraft's disintegration Tuesday, Jan. 28, 1986, 73 seconds into its flight, at 11:39 a.m. Eastern Standard Time EST (16:39:13 Coordinated Universal Time UTC), occasioned the nonprofit private foundation establishment in 1986. The Astronauts Memorial Foundation is sited in the NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Center for Space Education (CSE).

The Astronauts Memorial Foundation received 756 designs of the Space Mirror Memorial for a national competition conducted in 1987. The Foundation selected the design submitted by the California architectural firm of Holt, Hinshaw, Pfau, and Jones. The San Francisco-based firm designed the memorial as a welded steel and mirror-finished black granite structure divided into 90 panels. The design allows for incising the letters of honoree names into the panels. The $7.8 million dollar project reaches a height of 42.5 feet and a width of 50 feet, according to The Astronauts Memorial Foundation's website. The Space Mirror Memorial and the Center for Space Education were built by W+J Construction, builders based in Rockledge, in east central coastal Florida's Brevard County.

The Space Mirror Memorial and the Center for Space Education are located on the grounds of the John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Visitor Complex on Brevard County's Merritt Island. Established Sunday, July 1, 1962, the Kennedy Space Center numbers as one of 10 field centers operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA's other nine field centers are Langley Research Center (LaRC or NASA Langley), Hampton, southeastern Virginia; Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames), Moffett Federal Airfield, also known as Moffett Field, Santa Clara County, San Francisco Bay Area, California; John H. Glenn Research Center (GRC) at Lewis Field, Brook Park, Cuyahoga County, northeastern Ohio; Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC), Edwards Air Force Base (AFB), Edwards, Kern County, south central California; Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Los Angeles County, San Gabriel Valley, Southern California; George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Madison County, north central Alabama; Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, Prince George's County (PG County), Maryland; John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC), Hancock County, southern Mississippi; and Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC), Houston, Harris County, southeastern Texas.

A Joint Resolution of both chambers of the United States Congress recognized "the Astronauts Memorial at the John F. Kennedy Space Center as the national memorial to astronauts who die in the line of duty." The House-originated resolution (H.J. Res. 214; Public Law 102-41 102d Congress) was considered and passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, April 30, 1991, and by the U.S. Senate on Monday, May 6, 1991. The resolution was approved jointly by the Senate and House on Wednesday, May 8, 1991, and was 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). As 44th Vice President of the United States (Jan. 20, 1989-Jan. 20, 1993), James Danforth Quayle (born Feb. 4, 1947) dedicated the memorial on the following date, Thursday, May 9, 1991.

The Space Mirror Memorial presently commemorates 25 fallen space program participants. A ceremony on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, unveiled the incised name of Michael Tyner Alsbury (March 19, 1975-Oct. 31, 2014) as the 25th honoree on the Space Mirror Memorial. The American private astronaut and test pilot for American aerospace company Scaled Composites, known as Scaled, died on Halloween, Friday, Oct. 31, 2014, during a test flight of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo (SS2). The suborbital spaceplane crashed in the Mojave Desert (Mohave: Hayikwiir; Spanish: Desierto de Mojave) in southeastern California.

aerial view of John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Visitor Complex, with (black rectangular structure, lower center) Space Mirror Memorial, next to lake, and (lower right) Center for Space Exploration (CSE), right of curved lake; Wednesday, July 23, 2003, image; NASA ID KSC-03pd2211: Not subject to copyright, via NASA Image and Video Library

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

Space Mirror Memorial on grounds of John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Vistor Complex, with (left) 184-foot-tall, full-scale replica of space shuttle Atlantis' solid rocket boosters and external tank and of Northrop T-38 Talon, a two-seat, twinjet supersonic jet trainer used by NASA as astronaut trainer and as chase plane, displayed at entryway to Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit inside Kennedy Space Center Orbiter Building; Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, 13:56, image: JohnOwen848, CC BY-SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SMM_Jan_25_2020_Glatfelter.jpg

aerial view of John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Visitor Complex, with (black rectangular structure, lower center) Space Mirror Memorial, next to lake, and (lower right) Center for Space Exploration (CSE), right of curved lake; Wednesday, July 23, 2003, image; NASA ID KSC-03pd2211: Not subject to copyright, via NASA Image and Video Library @ https://images.nasa.gov/details/KSC-03pd2211

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