Today, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe designated the landing site of the Opportunity rover on Mars as the "Challenger Memorial Station" to honor the seven lives lost during the 1986 mission. [NASA Release]

Shortly after Spirit, the other Mars Exploration Rover, landed last week, he made a similar designation for its landing site to be called the "Columbia Memorial Station" as a remembrance for last year's tragedy. [NASA Release]

Yesterday on the anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire in which three Apollo astronauts lost their lives, a hill complex surrounding Spirit's landing site was designated the "Apollo 1 hills" and individual hills were named for Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. [NASA Release]

Shortly after its landing in 1997, the Mars Pathfinder was designated as the "Sagan Memorial Station" after the late, great Carl Sagan. A presentation was made to his widow, Ann Druyan, during a Planetary Society event surrounding the landing of Pathfinder. [NASA Release]

In the past, the previous Viking landers were also given designations. In January 1982, the Viking 1 lander was designated the "Thomas Mutch Memorial Station" to honor the late leader of the Viking imaging team. A display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC contains a plaque which is designated to be affixed to the Viking 1 lander once astronauts are able to do so in person.

Much later, in 2001, then-NASA Administrator Daniel Golden designated the other Viking lander, Viking 2, as the "Gerald Soffen Memorial Station" in remembrance of another Viking project scientist who had recently passed away. [Space.com Release]

Posted by jburk at January 28, 2004 12:00 PM | TrackBack