On February 1, 2003 as the crew of Columbia attempted re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, a piece of the external haul unexpectedly broke off and damaged one of Columbia’s wings, causing the craft to lose control and break apart. On board were Shuttle Commander and pilot Rick Husband, U.S. Air Force Colonel and a mechanical engineer; co-pilot Commander William C. McCool of the U.S. Navy; Lieutenant-Colonel Michael P. Anderson of the U.S. Air Force, who was a physicist, mission specialist, and payload commander; Kalpana Chawla, an aerospace engineer; Captain David M. Brown of the U.S. Navy; Captain Laurel Blair Salton Clark, U.S. Navy; and Colonel Ilan Ramon of the Israeli Air Force. In 1981, Colonel Ilan Ramon was part of the Israeli Air Force crew that bombed Saddam Hussein’s nuclear reactor in Baghdad, Iraq, a reactor Hussein openly claimed would be used against Israel. Ramon and the pilots of that memorable mission ended up saving the world from a nuclear war. Years later, Ramon joined the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia, logging a total of 15 days, 22 hours, and 20 minutes in space, during which time he famously read from a small Torah scroll that belonged to his friend and physicist Joachim Joseph. Mr. Joseph was a Holocaust survivor who read from that same scroll for his secret bar mitzvah inside the barracks of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. On January 21, 2003, Ilan told the world Joachim’s story and read from the Torah aloud. In the audience was Ramon’s mother,who had survived Auschwitz. During the presentation, Ramon stated, “This was given by a rabbi to a scared, thin young boy in Bergen-Belsen... It represents, more than anything, the ability of the Jewish people to survive. From horrible periods and black days, to reachreachingods of hope and belief in the future.”