Reaching for the Stars - Israel's First Astronaut

Israel Defense Forces ^ | 2/2/2003 | IDF Spokesperson's Unit

[yonif]

February 2nd, 2003

Reaching for the Stars - Israel's First Astronaut

In November 1995, former US President Bill Clinton and former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres agreed that an Israeli astronaut would participate in a NASA space mission.

During this period, the IAF displayed interest in space research due to the growing significance of the field in the following areas: meteorology, communications, navigation, forewarning and intelligence.

As such, the IAF presented NASA with a candidate. In addition, the continued cooperation with NASA was an important goal of its own.

The criteria by which candidates were chosen was set by NASA and included the requirement of a higher degree in engineering and physics, as well as previous experience in managing and carrying out experiments.

The list of candidates included individuals from the Israeli Space Agency and was submitted at the beginning of 1997. Colonel Ilan Ramon, then head of the Munitions Department was chosen. Lieutenant Colonel Yitzchak Meir was named as the backup candidate.

In March 1998, the two candidates were sent to NASA Headquarters in Houston Texas, where they underwent medical, physiological, and psychological examinations.

In July 1998, the two candidates began their NASA training. The course, which lasted a few months, was meant to train the candidates as space shuttle cargo experts.

Since the launch date was not yet finalized, Ramon and the others participated as observers in the "mission specialist" course to expand their knowledge of space flight.

In August 1999, the process of formulating a flight plan for flight STS-107 of the Space Shuttle Columbia had begun. According to the flight plan, Columbia was scheduled to remain in space for 16 days, 240km above the earth, in a 90-minute orbit at the speed of 29,000 Km/h.

During October 2000, a crew of seven astronauts was selected to man the shuttle, including Colonel Ilan Ramon. Colonel Ramon was chosen as a payload specialist and was responsible for carrying out scientific experiments.

Following their selection, the crew began the final stage of joint training.

At this stage, most of the training was dedicated to practicing familiarizing the crew with the forty experiments to be carried out on board the space shuttle. Colonel Ramon was to spend much of the time on the shuttle conducting a study for the Israel Space Agency of how desert dust and other contaminants in the Earth's atmosphere affect rainfall and temperature.

Between 2001 and 2002, the launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia was postponed numerous times due to internal issues at NASA.

The space shuttle Columbia was finally launched on January 16, 2003.