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Israeli astronaut Col. Ilan Ramon and six other members of the space shuttle Columbia crew lost their lives upon reentry to earth's orbit on February 1, 2003.
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| By Ellis Shuman February 1, 2004 |
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A memorial ceremony for Israel Air Force Col. Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut and one of the seven astronauts killed when the space shuttle Columbia crashed on its return to earth on February 1, 2003, took place this morning at the Nahalal cemetery, where he is buried.
"Living a year without our beloved Ilan is almost a mission impossible," said Ramon's widow, Rona, at the ceremony.
In her eulogy, Rona recalled the fateful moments a year ago when the Columbia was lost. "The world knew, and we stood smiling and excited, getting our pictures taken on the bleachers. The entire world knew, but we didn't know. But now, a year later, we know, we know how difficult are the pain and the longing. We know the meaning of the phrase - longing breaks the heart."
At the end of her talk, Rona quoted from words her husband wrote in a recently discovered diary from space. "Far away, but close, close in the heart," Rona said.
Yediot Aharonot recently reported that several months ago, sections of Ramon's personal diary, handwritten in Hebrew, were discovered in Texas by a Native American tracker. NASA could not make head or tail out of the unfamiliar Hebrew squiggles on the scorched pieces of paper, so the agency sent the pages to Rona, who immediately identified it as her husband's writing.
Since part of the text was destroyed during the Colombia's disintegration, and the pages were full of holes, Rona sent the diary to Israel Police's criminal investigation unit, which used advanced optical scanners to figure out the text.
Last week Channel Two television broadcast a film portraying the emotional story of Ramon's launch into space, the day-to-day operations of the space shuttle mission, his connections with his family, and his observations as written in the diary. In his notes, Ramon expressed his excitement and feeling of good fortune to be aboard the spacecraft and to enjoy views of the Earth and the "thin layer of atmosphere."
"You left us a legacy, to take care of earth and to take care of our small country," eulogized Eliezer Wolferman, Ilan's father, at the memorial ceremony today.
The ceremony at Nahalal was attended by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon, IAF commanders and pilots, family and friends.
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