Ilan Ramon

In 1997, Ramon was selected as a Payload Specialist. He was designated to train as prime for a space shuttle mission with a payload that included a multispectral camera for recording desert aerosol (dust). In July 1998, he reported for training at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, where he trained until 2003. He flew aboard STS-107, logging 15 days, 22 hours and 20 minutes in space.

Ramon photographed aboard Columbia on January 26, 2003

STS-107 Columbia (January 16 – February 1, 2003), a 16-day flight, was a dedicated science and research mission. Working 24 hours a day, in two alternating shifts, the crew successfully conducted approximately 80 experiments.

Although considered a secular Jew, Ramon reportedly sought to follow Jewish observances while in orbit. In an interview he said, "I feel I am representing all Jews and all Israelis." He was the first spaceflight participant to request kosher food. He reportedly sought advice from a Chabad Lubavitch rabbi, Zvi Konikov, about how to observe the Jewish Sabbath in space, as the period between sunrises in orbit is approximately 90 minutes. This was referenced by the words "Jerusalem we have a problem" in Rabbi Konikov's speech at the Kennedy Space Center Memorial for Columbia on February 7, 2003.[9]

The STS-107 mission ended abruptly when Space Shuttle Columbia was destroyed and its crew died during re-entry, 16 minutes before scheduled landing.

Ramon, whose mother and grandmother were survivors of Auschwitz, was asked by S. Isaac Mekel, director of development at the American Society for Yad Vashem, to take an item from Yad Vashem aboard STS-107. Ramon carried with him a pencil sketch, Moon Landscape, drawn by 16-year-old Petr Ginz, who died in Auschwitz. Ramon also took with him a microfiche copy of the Torah given to him by Israeli president Moshe Katsav and a miniature Torah scroll (from the Holocaust) that was given him by Prof. Yehoyachin Yosef, a Bergen Belsen survivor.[10] Ramon asked the 1939 Club, a Holocaust survivor organization in Los Angeles, for a symbol of the Holocaust to take into outer space with him. A barbed wire mezuzah by the San Francisco artist Aimee Golant was selected. Ramon also took with him a dollar of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson.[11] Ramon and the rest of the Columbia crew died over East Texas in the Southern United States during entry into Earth's atmosphere, 16 minutes prior to scheduled landing. [5] On November 10, 2013, the American Society for Yad Vashem held a special event with the participation of Petr Ginz's nephew and Ramon's son Tal, who performed a song he wrote in memory of his father.

Among the recovered 40% from the contents of the Columbia space shuttle that crashed outside Palestine, Texas were 37 pages of Ramon's diary, which NASA returned to his wife.[12][13]

These 37 pages from the diary he was keeping while in orbit survived the crash and were returned to his widow, Rona,[12] who has shared an excerpt with the Israeli public in a display at Jerusalem's Israel Museum.[14] Rona Ramon brought it to Israel Museum forensic experts. Only two pages were displayed, one containing Ramon's notes, and the other is a copy of the Kiddush prayer.[14] Curator Yigal Zalmona[15] said the diary was partially restored in one year, and needed four more, for police scientists to decipher 80% of the text. Zalmona stated: "The diary survived extreme heat in the explosion, extreme atmospheric cold, and then "was attacked by microorganisms and insects. It's almost a miracle that it survived — it's incredible. There is 'no rational explanation' for how it was recovered when most of the shuttle was not, he said."[14] Ramon wrote on the last day of the journal:

Today was the first day that I felt that I am truly living in space. I have become a man who lives and works in space.

Inscribed in black ink and pencil, it covered the first six days of the 16-day mission. The papers remained white even though, exposed at high speed 37 miles (60 km) above the Earth, they should have burned.[16]

Ramon's eldest son, Assaf (February 10, 1988 – September 13, 2009), died aged 21 during a routine training flight while piloting his F-16A, 3 months after graduating from the IAF flight school Hatzerim Airbase as the top cadet in his class.[17][18][19][20] He lost consciousness during a spell of vertigo, as a result of the high speed and G-force conditions to which he was subjected. This led to the plane crash and Ramon's subsequent death. Assaf was considered an excellent pilot.[21] A lieutenant of the Israeli Air Force, he was posthumously promoted to the rank of captain.[21]

Ramon's widow, Rona Ramon, served in the Israel Defense Forces as a paramedic and later earned a BA at the Wingate Institute. After Assaf's death, Rona returned to school and earned a master's degree in holistic health at Massachusetts' Lesley University. She also began to lecture about dealing with grief and finding coping mechanisms. She served as founding CEO of the nonprofit Ramon Foundation for youth academic excellence and social leadership through science and technology.[22] Rona died on December 17, 2018, after battling pancreatic cancer.[23] After her death, she was awarded Israel prize for lifetime achievement.