NASA honors fallen astronauts with 'Day of Remembrance' ceremony today

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The agency will honor its fallen space explorers during a ceremony at 10 a.m. ET today (Jan. 25).

a handful of people in dark suits stand in front of a large black wall into which several dozen names have been carved.
NASA officials, elected officials and members of The Astronauts Memorial Foundation led a ceremony at the Space Mirror Memorial for NASA's Day of Remembrance at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. (Image credit: NASA TV)

Update for 11:30 a.m. EST: NASA's Day of Remembrance ceremony was not livestreamed on the agency's Kennedy Space Center YouTube channel at the link previously stated. 

NASA will honor its fallen space explorers during a ceremony on Thursday (Jan. 25), and you can watch the somber proceedings live.

The agency is holding "Day of Remembrance" events at its research centers around the nation on Thursday to honor the astronauts who died in NASA's three space tragedies — the Apollo 1 fire in 1967, the space shuttle Challenger explosion in 1986 and the shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003.

NASA will livestream the event that Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida is hosting in partnership with The Astronauts Memorial Foundation. You can watch the ceremony, which begins at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT) on Thursday, here at Space.com, courtesy of KSC, or directly via the center.

Related: The shuttle Columbia disaster: What happened and what NASA learned

The livestreamed event will be held at the Space Mirror Memorial at KSC's Visitor Complex. The memorial, a large black-granite wall that was dedicated in 1991, bears the names of the fallen Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia crewmembers, as well as nine other astronauts who died while in training for spaceflight.

Kathie Fulgham, who chairs the Astronaut Memorial Foundation, will serve as master of ceremonies for the event. Fulgham is the daughter of former NASA astronaut Dick Scobee, the commander of Challenger's final mission.

Burt Summerfield, KSC's associate director in management, will speak during the ceremony, according to a NASA statement.

RELATED STORIES:

— NASA's fallen astronauts: a photo memorial

— New NASA video honors fallen astronauts of Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia

— Space shuttle Columbia: NASA's first shuttle in space

NASA's Day of Remembrance is an annual tradition held in late January, around the time when all three disasters occurred.

The Apollo 1 fire broke out on Jan. 27, 1967 during testing of the mission's command module, killing astronauts Roger Chaffee, Ed White and Gus Grissom. 

Challenger was lost 73 seconds after liftoff on Jan. 28, 1986, claiming the lives of Scobee, Michael Smith, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe.

Columbia broke apart while reentering Earth's atmosphere on Feb. 1, 2003. Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon were lost.

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Mike Wall
Mike Wall
Senior Space Writer

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.