Saying goodbye to Asaf Ramon
Happier times: Asaf and Rona Rimon at his graduation ceremony this summer. Photo by Dudu Greenspan/Flash 90.
No death in the Israeli army is ever taken lightly. This is a place where every father, son, brother, cousin or boyfriend has to serve, but the tragedy of this death, coming just a few years after his father’s, was apparent to all.
In February 2003, an intifada-scarred Israel watched with pride as Ilan Ramon became the first Israeli in space. His progress on the US shuttle Columbia, his reports back home, gave Israel a ray of hope in what was frankly an awful time. Even kids in kindergarten knew of his accomplishments and spoke about him as if he were a national hero.
On re-entry into earth’s atmosphere, the shuttle broke up and Ramon and the rest of the crew were all killed. All that remained of Ramon were a few pages of his diary , which were found two months later in a field – ironically, in the town of Palestine in Texas.
Asaf Ramon was 15 when his father died. He decided to follow in his father’s footsteps, and vowed that one day he too would go into space.
Like his father before him he was a top student, and he completed his flight-training course in the IAF as the best cadet in his class. In his passing out ceremony in July, President Peres gave him his wings.
We still don’t know what happened, or why Asaf Ramon crashed. He was flying at 720km an hour when he lost control of the plane near the Hebron Hills. Was it technical error or pilot error? What is clear is that in Israel this isn’t the personal tragedy of one family, it’s a tragedy for all.
The tributes are pouring in on blog sites everywhere, from Diamond Pilots, which carries a full story of the crash , to Dvir Reznik, who writes on his blog :
“Asaf – I hope you’ll find joy and peace where ever you are, watching over us from high in the clouds, reunited with your father.”
On NASA Watch, readers discuss in awe how a 20-year-old could be flying an F-16.
Unsurprisingly, Ramon’s death has opened up the whole painful argument of whether Israel should allow combat service by sons of bereaved families. At present it requires written consent by the mother, a less than ideal solution as any pressurized mother can vouch.
Back at my home all I could think of was what Rona Ramon went through when officers from the IAF knocked on her door for the second time in six years with the very worst kind of news.
Miraculous space pulp
Filed under: A New Reality, Art, General, History and Culture, Technology
Curators at the Israel Museum have worked in conjunction with Israel’s State Archives to sort through millions of archived documents and are now presenting a special exhibition entitled “Blue and White Pages: Documenting the History of Israel,” opening two days from now and closing February 7, 2009.
In celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary, most of the documents on display at the exhibit are available for viewing by the general public for the first time ever. Some of the highlights include the blood-stained copy of “A Song to Peace” lyrics found in Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s pocket on the night of his assassination, Israel’s original Declaration of Independence and peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan.
But perhaps the piece de resistance is two pages restored from the remains of a journal kept by Ilan Ramon while in space. Israel’s first-ever astronaut, Ramon and his co-crew members died when the Columbia fell apart while attempting to land on earth on February 1, 2003. Remains of his diary, which fell several miles to the ground, were found two months later in a field in Palestine, Texas. Years of restoration by the Museum’s Paper Conservation Laboratory yielded 37 rescued pages, most of which are being kept private as per the requests of Ramon’s family.
The Jerusalem Post has this to add:
A little over two months after the shuttle explosion, NASA searchers found 37 pages from Ramon’s diary, wet and crumpled, in a field just outside the US town of Palestine, Texas. The diary survived extreme heat in the explosion, extreme atmospheric cold, and then “was attacked by microorganisms and insects” in the field where it fell, said museum curator Yigal Zalmona.
“It’s almost a miracle that it survived it’s incredible,” Zalmona said. There is “no rational explanation” for how it was recovered when most of the shuttle was not, he said.
According to a statement released by the Museum’s spokespeople, the two pages on display “include Ramon’s description of the experience of life in space and a handwritten copy of the Kiddush, the Jewish blessing over wine, intended for use in live transmission while on board the Columbia spacecraft.” Read more
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