NASA DAY OF REMEMBRANCE 2021, Jan 28, 2021, 11:00 am ET

Update, January 25:  The 11:00 am ET event at KSC Visitor Center will be livestreamed on KSC’s Facebook page.

Original Entry: NASA will hold its annual Day of Remembrance on January 28, 2021.  The day honors fallen astronauts, including the crews of the nation’s three fatal space accidents, Apollo 1 (January 27, 1967), Space Shuttle Challenger (January 28, 1986), and Space Shuttle Columbia (February 1, 2003).

This year is the 35th anniversary of the Challenger tragedy that took the lives of five NASA astronauts (Dick Scobee, Michael Smith, Ron McNair, Judy Resnick, and Ellison Onizuka), schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, and Hughes Aircraft engineer Greg Jarvis.

NASA HQ has not announced details of its commemoration plans, but NASAWatch’s Keith Cowing, who keeps close track of these annual events, tweeted that the public is discouraged from attending the traditional wreath laying at Arlington National Cemetery because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

#NASA HQ will have a Remembrance Day ceremony at Arlington Nat’l Cemetery as they have for decades but they’re not taking guests & apparently don’t want the public to try to attend an event being held in a large, outdoor public place due to COVID. Something will be posted online. pic.twitter.com/TV7o66IH3s

— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) January 22, 2021

NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC), the Astronauts Memorial Foundation, and the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will hold a ceremony at the Space Mirror Memorial.  KSC Director and former astronaut Bob Cabana and retired space shuttle flight director Mike Leinbach will speak. Only invited guests will be allowed to attend in person because of COVID-19, but the event will be streamed on Facebook at 11:00 am ET.  Unfortunately the announcement from the KSC Visitor Center does not link to a Facebook page but the Visitor Center’s page is here.  Not sure if that’s where the livestream will be, though. [As noted in the update above, it will be on KSC’s Facebook page.]