Events of Interest: Week of January 27-February 1, 2013

The following events may be of interest in the coming week.  The Senate is in session; the House is in recess.

During the Week:  Honoring the Astronauts Who Lost Their Lives

Today, January 27, marks the anniversary of the death of the first Apollo crew — Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee — in a fire in their Apollo capsule during a ground test at Kennedy Space Center in 1967.  Tomorrow is the anniversary of the loss of space shuttle Challenger and its crew of seven — Dick Scobee (NASA), Mike Smith (NASA), Judy Resnik (NASA), Ellison Onizuka (NASA), Ron McNair (NASA), Greg Jarvis (Hughes Aircraft) and Christa McAuliffe (teacher in space) — in 1986 when an O-ring in a solid rocket booster failed leading to an explosion 73 seconds after launch.  Friday is the 10th anniversary of the space shuttle Columbia tragedy when the shuttle disintegrated while returning to Earth when superheated air entered the wing through a hole created during launch when a piece of foam came off the External Tank and struck it.  All seven crew members were lost — Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, and Laurel Clark, all NASA astronauts, and Ilan Ramon of the Israeli Air Force.

NASA will commemorate their lives at NASA’s Day of Remembrance on February 1, 2013.   NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and Deputy Administrator Lori Garver will lay wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery in the morning.  At the same time, Kennedy Space Center and the Astronaut Memorial Foundation will hold an event at the KSC Visitor Center that will be broadcast on NASA TV.  In the evening, the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum will hold a panel discussion at its Udvar-Hazy Center outside Washington, D.C., which will be webcast, on “Caution and Boldness:  Balancing Risk in Spaceflight.”   Evelyn Husband-Thompson, widow of Columbia commander Rick Husband, will speak at the KSC ceremony.   June Scobee Rogers, widow of Challenger commander Dick Scobee, will speak at the Smithsonian event.

Those and other events of interest are listed below.

Wednesday, January 30

• Marshall Institute/TechAmerica panel on Disaggregation in Space, 601 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W., North Building (enter from Indiana Ave), Suite 600, Washington, DC, 9:00 – 10:30 am ET
• Sierra Nevada Corp. Press Conference on Dream Chaser, Louisville, CO, 9:30 am MT (11:30 am ET)

Thursday, January 31

• Senate Armed Services Committee nomination hearing for Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense, G-50 Dirksen Senate Office Building, 9:30 am ET

Friday, February 1

• NASA Day of Remembrance
  • Wreath Laying Ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, beginning at 9:30 am ET
  • KSC/Astronaut Memorial Foundation event, KSC Visitor Center Space Mirror Memorial, 10:00 am ET (broadcast on NASA TV)
  • Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum panel discussion on Caution and Boldness:  Balancing Risk in Spaceflight, Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, VA (near Dulles Airport), 8:00 pm ET (webcast)