Hope is a space shuttle flight

To Holocaust survivors, the first Israeli astronaut represents many dreams fulfilled.

©Associated Press
June 27, 2002

[AP photo] Ilan Ramon, Israel’s first astronaut, is a 48-year-old air force colonel who fought in the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and the Lebanon War in 1982. He is scheduled to be on a NASA shuttle this year.

SPACE CENTER, Houston -- Every time he talks to Holocaust survivors about his upcoming space shuttle flight, Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut, can see it in their eyes.

The wonder. The pride.

"For Israel and for the Jewish community, it's something beyond being in space. It's a very symbolic mission," says Ramon, who will rocket into orbit aboard the shuttle Columbia next month.

As the son of an Auschwitz death camp survivor, Ramon understands that his is no ordinary space flight.

"After going through all they've been through in the Holocaust, surviving, if you talk and see these people saying that they actually lost any hope for any reasonable life, to be able to go from there to space, this is a big issue," he says. "They really don't believe that I'm an astronaut, because for them, it's out of this world."

Jews have been flying to space for years, but never an Israeli and never with as much regard for religious detail -- or security.

Ramon's flight comes at a time Middle East tensions and U.S. security fears are at their worst.

A 48-year-old Israeli air force colonel who has endured combat as well as a midair collision in which he ejected from his fighter jet, Ramon insists he is not worried about his launch aboard Columbia, which was scheduled for July 19 but postponed for a few weeks because of technical problems. He will fly with six Americans, including Kalpana Chawla, an engineer who was born in India, another hot spot.

Extra security will be in place at Cape Canaveral for the launch, even though NASA insists protection has been high and taken seriously for every shuttle flight since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. On every launch day since then, Air Force fighter jets have been on the lookout, not only for hijacked airliners but for small planes that might penetrate the no-fly zone and aim for the fueled spaceship.

"There is no question, this is a high-value target," NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe says of the shuttle fleet. "It has been identified as such by all the intelligence information that we had received post-Sept. 11, that this is considered to be a very high-value target opportunity that terrorists view as a great way to make a statement."

The commander of Ramon's mission, U.S. Air Force Col. Rick Husband, says NASA's security force has everything "well in hand." He says he does not feel any more a target just because an Israeli is on board.

"I suppose really, to get right down to it, it's all part of the cost of doing business," Husband says. "In most of the reports I've seen, usually comments are made about Israelis and Americans kind of in the same breath."

Ramon, soft-spoken and small but sturdy, has kept a low profile at NASA and avoided news interviews until this spring. He has been training at Johnson Space Center for Columbia's scientific research mission since 1998, representing the Israel Space Agency.

He says he feels very safe, at NASA and at home in Houston with wife Rona and their four children, ages 6 to 14. He says he has no bodyguards. "No fake mustache, nothing," he adds, laughing.

The former fighter pilot and weapons specialist from Tel Aviv -- he fought in the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and the Lebanon War in 1982 -- says crazy people are everywhere and he's not worried about them. He's also not afraid of riding a rocket loaded with explosive fuel.

"Of course, my wife, she says the whole time that she's waiting for the minute of the touchdown," he says. "But as a pilot, you're exposed to a lot of risks, so we are kind of trained, and she's trained, and my parents are trained."

His father, 79, a Zionist who fought for Israel's statehood alongside his father, plans to be at the launch, as does the astronaut's older brother, an Israeli restaurateur.

His 75-year-old mother is too ill to travel. She was imprisoned at Auschwitz for 11/2 years before being liberated by the Russians in 1945, along with her mother. Other relatives did not make it.

"I'm kind of a dream fulfillment for all this last-century generation," Ramon says. "Nobody in the Holocaust, nobody could have ever dreamed about Israel as a state. Of course, nobody could have ever dreamed about an Israeli astronaut."

Ramon was as surprised as anyone when an air force colleague called in 1997 to see if he wanted to become an astronaut, under an agreement between the Israeli government and the Clinton administration. It was evening, and Ramon was trying to leave the office and go home.

"I told him, 'Come on, I don't have time for jokes now,' " Ramon recalls. He figured it was a joke because the idea was so preposterous.

Israelis use the English word "astronaut" to describe a person who is "not attached to the ground, to reality," Ramon says. "He's far away there, floating, not connected."

The Israel Space Agency, formed in 1983, wanted a military pilot as its first astronaut, just as NASA did during Project Mercury. As head of the Department of Operational Requirement for Weapon Development and Acquisition and a former F-16 squadron commander, Ramon was a logical choice.

Fifteen months later, Ramon found himself at Johnson Space Center, going through much of the same training as NASA's Astronaut Class of '98. He had to skip the flying lessons; only Americans can serve as shuttle pilots.

As a payload specialist, NASA's label for a noncareer astronaut, Ramon will focus on the scientific research aboard Columbia. The main experiment, from Israel, will use a camera to study dust and other contaminants in Earth's atmosphere to see how these aerosols affect rainfall and temperature.

Ramon emphasizes that the study will benefit all nations. "It's not necessarily an Israeli desire to explore the dust, although since we have a lot of desert and a lot of dust, it's natural," he says.

Although Ramon does not consider himself particularly religious, he has ordered kosher meals for his flight. (NASA turned to a special vendor for this first-time request.) And he will not eat pork or seafood, or combine meat and dairy products, during his 16 days in orbit.

"I feel that I represent the whole Israeli state," he says.

On the other hand, Ramon plans to work in space -- and launch, if necessary -- on the Sabbath. Being Jewish, he says, has not interfered with his training in any way.

He's taking up several mezuzas, small cases that are hung on the doorposts of Jewish homes and contain inscriptions from the Book of Deuteronomy. One is made of silver, copper and barbed wire, the gift of San Francisco artist Aimee Golant, whose grandparents survived the Holocaust.

His carry-on luggage also will hold a flag from Israel's president and a small pencil drawing, titled "Moon Landscape," by Peter Ginz, a 14-year-old Jewish boy who was killed at Auschwitz. The drawing is from the art museum of Yad Vashem, Israel's national Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.

Shraga Mekel, development director for the American Society for Yad Vashem, says Ramon would not be alive today, either, "if the Nazis had their way and all his family would have perished in Auschwitz." Ramon is the best of the best air force, and just imagine, Mekel says, "the other Ilan Ramons who were never born."

" 'Moon Landscape' connects the dream of one Jewish boy who is a symbol of the talent lost in the Holocaust to the journey of one Jewish astronaut who is a symbol of our revival," says Eli Zborowski, chairman of the American Society for Yad Vashem in New York City.

Ramon expects his flight to be an especially bright spot for Israelis, considering the recent violence. At the same time, he realizes his mission might be overshadowed by all the news back home.

"In Israel, every hour there's another item in the news," Ramon says. "But I think because it's kind of out-of-the-ordinary news area, (the space flight) would stay there longer."

Ramon and his family plan to move back to Tel Aviv after the shuttle mission. No one is talking seriously about an Israeli flying in space again, although the country's aerosol camera eventually might be launched to the international space station if the results are good.

The director general of the Israel Space Agency, Aby Har-Even, says his agency had to justify the experiment scientifically to NASA and that Ramon's presence on the mission is testimony to its worth. He points out that when a Saudi prince, Sultan Salman, flew on a space shuttle in 1985, he accompanied the Arabsat communications satellite, not scientific research. Israel will be the 15th country to have an astronaut fly aboard a NASA space shuttle.

Har-Even says Israel's severe demands on defense are putting budget pressure on everything, including the space program.

Because Ramon was close to retiring when he got the astronaut offer, he's not sure if he would be fighting right now if he was still in Israel. He believes he is contributing to peace, however, by going into space.

Fighting for peace involves more than flying airplanes or shooting rifles, Ramon says.

"My serving here in NASA, taking care of the national pride from one side and taking care of the science experiments for humankind, is also taking part of what we call war. So I feel like I'm doing something."

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