Diary of Israel's First Astronaut on Display
by Aryeh Haffner
The diary of Israel Air Force Colonel Ilan Ramon managed to escape the inferno that destroyed the Columbia spacecraft and its crew as it returned to Earth on February 1, 2003, and the precious document is now on display as a posterity for the citizens of Israel.
Colonel Ramon had taken with him, in the shuttle, a drawing by a 14-year-old victim of the Holocaust, who had drawn a picture of walking on the Moon.
The Columbia shuttle which held Ramon and the rest of the crew members burned up and disintegrated on re-entry, due to a vulnerability to heat on one of its wings, caused by a piece of heat-resistant foam insulation that became detached on the launch. All seven crew members were killed, and parts of the shuttle were scattered throughout Texas in the United States.
Israel Museum Curator Yigal Zalmona told the Associated Press it was "almost a miracle" the pages survived at all.
Thirty seven pages were recovered from a damp field in Texas. U.S. authorities returned them to Israel and the pages underwent a careful restoration process before being returned to Ilan's widow, Rona, and their four children.
Rona Ramon donated two pages of the diary to the museum, but is keeping the more personal pages. Colonel Ramon had also taken with him in the shuttle a drawing by a 14-year-old victim of the Holocaust, who had drawn a picture of walking on the Moon.
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