Apollo 1
Virgil Grissom
Ed White II
Roger Chaffee
White's Medal of Honor
Chaffee's Medal of Honor

Soyuz 1
Vladimir Komarov

Soyuz 11
Georgi Dobrovolsky
Viktor Patsayev
Vladislav Volkov

Challenger STS-51L
Francis Scobee
Michael Smith
Ellison Onizuka
Ronald McNair
Judith Resnik
Gregory Jarvis
S. Christa McAuliffe
President Reagan's Speech
Memorial Service

Columbia STS-107
Rick Husband
William McCool
David Brown
Kalpana Chawla
Michael Anderson
Laurel Clark
Ilan Ramon
Photos
President Bush's Speech
Memorial Service

Other
Valentine Bondarenko
Ed Givens
Honorable Mention
Credits
About the Author

About the Author

My name is Scott Furtaw. I have been a supporter of the space program since I watched the first Shuttle launch back in the 2nd grade (1981). As a 7th grader in 1986, I was heartbroken when I learned that Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed during launch, killing all onboard. A few months later I had the honor of meeting June Scobee-Rodgers, wife of Dick Scobee who was Challenger's commander. I saw first hand what she had been through and how she was dealing with it. She and family members from the crew created the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, and I became one of 30,000 proud founding sponsors. Since then every January 28 I try to remind those around me that it was on that day we lost Challenger. I also took an interest in Apollo 1, especially since Roger Chaffee is from my homestate of Michigan. He has a beautiful showcase at Michigan's Own, Inc., Military & Space Museum in Frankenmuth, Michigan, and is well worth the trip. Once I got on the Internet on a regular basis around 1994, I thought it would be appropriate if there was some sort of an Astronaut Memorial Site, where people could learn about those who have given their lives for the space program. Since there was not such a site, I took it upon myself to create one. The site was first uploaded on January 27, 1998. Due to the fact that I wanted to have the site up and running by the anniversaries of Apollo 1 and Challenger, I did not have time to include cosmonauts. They have since been added, as have the astronauts who lost their lives while returning to Earth on Space Shuttle Columbia.

My wife, Kristi, and I are residing and raising our daughter, Elizabeth Pauline, and son, Nolan Scott, in Saginaw, Michigan, USA.