10 years to the Columbia Disaster

By Noga Gur-Arieh
Published on February 1, 2013

Space Shuttle Columbia: From Shoah to the stars

By Pat Sierchio
Published on January 23, 2013

On Feb. 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere, tragically taking the lives of all seven astronauts on board. Among those who never returned home were Israeli Air Force Col. Ilan Ramon — Israel’s first and only astronaut — and a miniature Torah dating back to the Holocaust.

Heschel West renaming for Israeli astronaut

Published on June 7, 2011

Heschel West Day School in Agoura Hills is changing its name to honor Israel’s first astronaut. During a Kabbalat Shabbat filled with song and dance on June 3, school leaders announced that the entity will be known as Ilan Ramon Day School beginning in September. As such, it becomes the first known school in the country to make its namesake the astronaut killed during the space shuttle Columbia’s fatal 2003 mission, according to Yuri Hronsky, head of school.

Israeli pilot Assaf Ramon buried next to astronaut father

Published on September 14, 2009

Israeli pilot Assaf Ramon was buried next to his father, astronaut Ilan Ramon, a day after he was killed in a training accident.

Astronaut Ilan Ramon’s son dies in IAF crash

Published on September 13, 2009

The son of the late Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon was killed in the crash of an Israeli Air Force fighter plane.

‘Tragic Loss’ documents Israeli astronaut’s ill-fated flight

By Robert David Jaffee
Published on March 8, 2007

My Father, My Hero

By Avner Hofstein
Published on February 5, 2004

There's a framed glass poster that hangs on the wall of Assaf Ramon's Houston bedroom wall. While the image of the smiling astronaut in the orange jumpsuit is famous, the Hebrew words inscribed at the bottom of the poster are not

For the Kids

By Abby Gilad
Published on February 13, 2003

One year ago, Kol Tikvah Religious School in Woodland Hills started a letter-writing campaign to Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon.

We Soared With Ilan

By Yuval Rotem
Published on February 6, 2003

Yuval Rotem, Israeli consul general for the Western United States, delivered these remarks at a Feb. 1 dinner for Pressman Academy,
honoring him and his wife, Miri, at the Airport Westin Hotel.

I Grieve for the Man Who’ll Never Return

By Yitzhak Ben-Horin
Published on February 6, 2003

His face peered out this week from every television set in the United States. It was impossible to escape him. It was impossible to stop looking at him. My heart ached, a real heartache. This time, I couldn't stop the tears.

Even I'm allowed. So what if I'm a cynical journalist who, in a career spanning over 30 years, covered wars, earthquakes, terrorist attacks and grieving families? I always tried to block emotions and hide behind my mask of professionalism.

Last Saturday morning, the mask broke.

Israel Mourns

By Naomi Segal
Published on February 6, 2003

Even for Israelis hardened by years of dealing with Palestinian terrorism, the death of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon came as a
difficult blow.

Where No Israeli Has Gone Before

By Yitzhak Ben-Horin
Published on January 9, 2003

Ilan Ramon walks the pathways of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, slowed by the weight of the thick book under his arm. It's the bible of the "magnificent seven" -- the group of astronauts scheduled to blast off in the space shuttle Columbia Jan. 16 from the Kennedy Space Center. Among these elite seven, for the first time, will be an Israeli astronaut.

Ramon, 48, a colonel in the Israeli Air Force (IAF), counts among his experience more than 4,000 hours in fighter jets. Following a decision by President Bill Clinton in 1995, the United States and Israel signed an agreement stipulating that an Israeli astronaut would fly on a U.S. space shuttle as a payload specialist, supervising an Israeli scientific experiment.

Space Programs Thriving in Israel

By Irene Brown
Published on January 9, 2003

The Israeli Post Office issued a stamp in December featuring the country's first astronaut, who is scheduled to fly on NASA's space shuttle in mid-January.

"Every time you are the first, it's meaningful," said Col. Ilan Ramon. Israel will join an elite club of 30 nations that have sent at least one citizen into orbit aboard a U.S. shuttle or a Russian Soyuz capsule. The countries include Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Syria, Costa Rica, South Africa, Poland, Afghanistan and Cuba.