Wed, Jan 07, 2004
Martian Plaque Honors Space Shuttle Columbia Crew
NASA Administrator Sean
O'Keefe has 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.
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