Columbia Disaster Astronaut's Diary Found (Ramon's)

Ananova ^ | 1-23-2004

[blam]

Columbia disaster astronaut's diary found

Pieces of an Israeli astronaut's diary, which plunged to earth with the stricken Columbia space shuttle, have been found in a field.

The pages of Ilan Ramon's journal were found by a native American searching fields in Texas shortly after the crash in February last year.

Initially, it was not known what the pieces of paper were. But when they were shown to Ramon's wife she confirmed it as his Hebrew handwriting.

Many of the pages were bleached as they tumbled into the atmosphere at super-heated temperatures. But Israeli forensic scientists, helped by museum manuscript experts, were able to reconstruct the words.

The journal, titled A Diary, Ilan Ramon, Astronaut covers the first six days of the 10-day mission. He writes in one excerpt: "No, no, I never believed it. Until the ignition of the engine, I still doubted..."

Passages from the Israeli fighter pilot's diary will appear in a documentary being broadcast in Israel to coincide with the February 1 anniversary of the shuttle disaster.

Documentary director Naftali Gliksberg told the New York Post: "He wrote about his sentiments about his family, his wife and their four children. He mentioned each of them. He wanted to record how he felt about them in space."

As well as the journal, Ramon had written a Sabbath prayer so he could recite it properly during the mission.

Seven astronauts died in the Columbia tragedy. The other six were Rick Husband, 45, William McCool, 41, Michael Anderson, 43, David Brown, 46, Kalpana Chawla, 41, and Laurel Clark, 41.

Story filed: 15:44 Friday 23rd January 2004

[OldFriend]

Saw a picture of one of the pages in the newspaper today.

This will be something of their father's that his children will cherish their entire lives.