Weather conditions proved to be too much for SpaceX to launch its Falcon 9 rocket on a mission for the Italian Space Agency on Saturday, but plenty of people bundled up and made their way to Titusville to honor astronauts who died in the pursuit of human exploration.

What You Need To Know

  • The Astronaut Memorial Ceremony was held Saturday morning in Titusville

  • The American Space Museum sponsored the event, which featured astronaut Dr. Winston Scot

  • Next year’s ceremony will move to Sunday

The day marked the annual Astronaut Memorial Ceremony hosted by the American Space Museum  in Titusville. 

“As I was getting ready, like you, if we were getting ready to go to a launch, we’d be looking for the ‘no go,’” joked Titusville Mayor Daniel Diesel in his opening remarks to the crowd. “But, because you guys are who you are, I knew we’d have a go.”

The dozens who made up the crowd at Space Point Park were a combination of Titusville residents, space fans and those who spent years working for the space program – many during the Space Shuttle era.

They gathered to remember the 17 astronauts who made up the crews of Apollo 1, Challenger STS-51-L and Columbia STS-107.

“We honor them not because they tragically died, we celebrate each of them because they lived,” said Mark Marquette, the community liaison for the ASM. “Because in their lives they helped change the world.” 

The keynote speaker at the event was Dr. Winston Scott, a retired astronaut who flew as a mission specialist on STS-72 and STS-87. He joked during his remarks that he was the “coolest astronaut” because he helped develop improvements to the thermal regulations of the EMU (extravehicular mobility unit). 

“It was 25 years ago almost to the day that we landed from my first space flight on Endeavor. And as I think back on it, when we launched on January 11, it was cold, unusually cold. We landed on January 20, 25 years ago, it was unusually cold when we landed,” Scott said.

Cold weather also had a large impact on the Challenger disaster, something Scott said he remembers vividly. He also noted that the astronauts who flew on STS-107 were contemporaries of his. 

But he said after the ceremony that even though the wrecks were awful, moments of remembrance have some joy to them.

“It’s not a day of being sad. I remember the day of the accidents. That was sad. But today is a day of inspiration because what we do is we want to take the memory of the astronauts that lost their lives and we want to use that to propel us forward,” Scott said.

The ceremony next year will move from Saturday to Sunday in order to accommodate a rabbi attending the event to represent Columbia astronaut Ilan Ramon, who was a member of the Israeli Air Force before joining the STS-107 crew.