The crew of STS-107, the ill-fated final flight of space shuttle Columbia.

Photo courtesy of NASA

On Friday Central Florida theme parks will be open for business as usual, except for the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. It too will be open, yet a special memorial event will take place at 10:00 a.m. February 1 to honor the crew of the space shuttle Columbia. It has been 10 years since Columbia re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and suffered catastrophic failure. The shuttle and its seven crew members were lost over Texas at 8:59 a.m., approximately 16 minutes before Columbia was schedule to land at the Space Center.

The ceremony at this Florida attraction will be held at the Space Mirror Memorial, where astronauts who died in the line of duty are memorialized. The crew of the STS-107 include:

  • David Brown, mission specialist
  • Rick Husband, commander
  • Laurel Clark, mission specialist
  • Kalpana Chawla, mission specialist
  • Michael Anderson, mission specialist
  • William McCool, pilot
  • Ilan Ramon, payload specialist, Israel’s first astronaut

Six-time Grammy award-winner BeBe Winans will sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Ultimate Sacrifice,” a song written by him to salute military personnel. Speakers at the ceremony include:

  • Thad Altman, AMF president and chief executive officer
  • Jon A. McBride, AMF Board of Directors chairman and former astronaut
  • Mick Ukleja, Ph.D., AMF Board of Trustees chairman
  • Evelyn Husband-Thompson, widow of Colonel Rick Husband, commander space shuttle Columbia STS-107
  • Eileen Collins, Return to Flight space shuttle commander
  • Robert D. Cabana, NASA Kennedy Space Center director and former astronaut
  • William H. Gerstenmaier, NASA Human Exploration and Operations associate administrator
  • Robert Lightfoot, NASA associate administrator

The ceremony is open to the public who will be provided flowers to place at the memorial. For more information about this Central Florida attraction, go to www.kennedyspacecenter.com, visit their Facebook page or call 877-313-2610.

Last Updated on January 28, 2013