Ilan Ramon – an Israeli hero

ALAN D. ABBE JERUSALEM POST

On April 29, 1997, 16 months after former U.S. president Bill Clinton announced that an Israeli would join a space shuttle mission, the world knew that it would be a fighter pilot who joined a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) crew. He was identified only as "Col. I.," a pilot who had logged many combat missions with the Israel air force (IAF) and who was an electrical engineer. He was 43 years old.

It was to be more than a year before the world learned Ilan Ramon's name. The IAF does not like to reveal the identities of its pilots, who are usually filmed either from behind or with their helmets on. But its hand was forced when NASA unveiled the name of Ramon and his backup, Lt.-Col. Yitzhak Mayo.

On Jan. 16, 2003, Ramon became the first Israeli astronaut in space. He was the payload specialist aboard the space shuttle Columbia on its 16-day science mission. He was joined by Rick D. Husband, mission commander; Kalpana Chawla, mission specialist; William C. McCool, pilot; David M. Brown, Laurel B. Clark and Michael P. Anderson, all mission specialists. All seven crew members died Feb. 1 when the shuttle disintegrated minutes before it was to land at Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Pilot turned astronaut

Ramon was born June 20, 1954, in Tel-Aviv. His wife's name is Rona, and the two have four children: Assaf, 15, Noa, five, David, 10, and Tal, 13. His parents live in Beersheba.

Ramon graduated from high school in 1972 and began his military service. Long before he received his college degree at 33, he distinguished himself in combat. In 1973, he participated in the Yom Kippur War.

In 1974, Ramon graduated as a fighter pilot from IAF flight school. In 1980, as part of IAF efforts to establish the first F-16 squadron in Israel, he attended the F-16 training course at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.

In 1981, Ramon was one of eight Israeli F-16 pilots who obliterated the French-built Osirak reactor near Baghdad. It was a milestone in Israeli aviation history because the planes flew over enemy Arab territory for hours without detection. The pilots flew in a tightly bunched formation to send off a radar signal like that of a large commercial airliner.

The next year, he flew missions over Lebanon as part of Operation Peace for Galilee.

From 1983 to 1987, Ramon attended Tel-Aviv University and received a bachelor of science degree in electronics and computer engineering. By 1992, he recorded a total of 1,000 flight hours in his F-16 and accumulated more than 3,000 flight hours on the A-4, Mirage III-C and F-4.

Ramon received the rank of colonel in 1994 and took over control of the air force's weapon development and acquisition department. In 1997, a colleague called and asked if he'd like to become an astronaut.

At first, Ramon thought the offer was a joke. It was evening, and Ramon was trying to leave the office and go home. In fact, he had been planning to retire from the air force.

"I told him, 'Come on, I don't have time for jokes now,' " Ramon said last year. "When I was a kid growing up, nobody in Israel ever dreamed – well, most people wouldn't dream – of being an astronaut.... When I was selected, I really jumped almost to space. I was very excited."

A Jew and an Israeli

Ramon reported for training at Johnson Space Centre in Houston in 1998. He brought along his wife and their children. As Ramon began to make the rounds in the media in the last few years, he let out details of his hopes for the flight, as well as personal information that piqued interest in him and his flight.

Ramon said he would carry with him various artifacts that "emphasize the unity of the people of Israel and the Jewish communities abroad." Ramon did not reveal at first what those would be, but said he saw his planned mission in space as a "good stage to proclaim that we [in Israel] need you, and you [in the Diaspora] need us." He began identifying himself as the son of a refugee father from Germany who fought in Israel's War of Independence and a mother who survived Auschwitz.

Ramon said that serving as his country's first astronaut was part of a "miracle" that stretched back 50 years.

Ramon was not an observant Jew, but said early on that he would eat only kosher food and try to mark Shabbat on board. There have been other Jewish astronauts, including David Wolf, who was on the shuttle Endeavor, and Judith Resnik, who died in the Challenger explosion in 1986. However, Ramon became the first to request kosher meals.

"This is symbolic," Ramon said. "I thought it would be nice to represent all kinds of Jews, including religious ones." He joked about affixing a mezuzah to the shuttle's door, but said it was up to the commander.

Ramon said being Israeli did not caused any problems inside NASA.

"Among the astronauts, I'm pretty well blended," he said in 2001. "Sometimes they, of course, talk about the 'situation' and that's natural. Most of the time, I'm just another astronaut having fun. Nothing special."

Ramon was planning on spending one final month after the flight in Houston in debriefing and post-experiment follow up. He then planned to return to Israel with his family to a new home in Ramat Gan.

On Feb. 10, at 7 and 10 p.m., VisionTV will air an in-depth interview with Ramon as part of their Jewish Sparks series.

^TOP