NASA has set aside the last Thursday of January — today — as an official Day of Remembrance at the space agency. The next week contains the anniversaries of all three great tragedies of the American space program: Apollo 1, Space Shuttle Challenger and Space Shuttle Columbia (Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the Challenger disaster).

In a statement on www.nasa.gov, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin says, "Today we pause to remember the loss of all of our employees, including our Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia astronauts, and to honor their legacy. Nearly 50 years into the space age, spaceflight remains the pinnacle of human challenge, an endeavor just barely possible with today's technology. We at NASA are privileged to be in the business of learning how to do it, to extend the frontier of the possible, and, ultimately, to make space travel routine. It is an enormously difficult enterprise. The losses we commemorate today are a strong and poignant reminder of the sternness of the challenge."

In the Star Trek community, we also honor the real-life heroes who have helped pave the way for future generations of space explorers. Without the sacrifices of Gus Grissom, Frank Scobee, Rick Husband, Christa McAuliffe and all the others, the Captain Archers, Kirks and Picards of centuries hence could not go boldly further into the unknown, expanding the human adventure and establishing mankind's place in the heavens.

Apollo 1
January 27, 1967
Virgil "Gus" Ivan Grissom
Edward Higgins White, II
Roger Bruce Chaffee

Space Shuttle Challenger, Mission STS-51-L
January 28, 1986
Francis R. Scobee
Michael J. Smith
Judith A. Resnik
Ellison S. Onizuka
Ronald E. McNair
Gregory B. Jarvis
Sharon Christa McAuliffe

Space Shuttle Columbia, Mission STS-107
February 1, 2003
Rick D. Husband
William C. McCool
Michael P. Anderson
Kalpana Chawla
David M. Brown
Laurel Blair Salton Clark
Ilan Ramon