today in jewish history

• First Israeli Astronaut Perishes (2003)

Ilan Ramon, a combat pilot in the Israeli Air Force, was the first Israeli astronaut. Prior to his departing to space on Space Shuttle Columbia, where his mission included the manning of a multispectral camera for recording desert aeroso, he arranged to take Kosher food and he took along a Kiddush cup and a copy of the Torah. The STS-107 mission ended when the space shuttle was destroyed upon re-entry, 16 minutes before its scheduled landing, on February 1, 2003, a Shabbat. All its crew members perished