State of Israel
has-colours">
Ilan Ramon
Aluf Mishne אלוף משנה
1954 – 2003


Colonel Ilan Ramon served the Israeli Air Force. Ilan was 48 years old.
How They Died
Manner
Accident
Cause
Multiple traumatic injuries
Place
United States of America
Biography
Payload specialist, a colonel of the Israeli Air Force, and the first Israeli in space. He was born Ilan Wolfferman in Ramat Gan. His mother and his grandmother had survived Auschwitz.
He flew in the war of 1973 and was the youngest pilot on the raid that destroyed the Osirak reactor in 1981 - the eighth aircraft, the one with the least fuel to get home. He took a degree in electronics and computer engineering at Tel Aviv University and commanded a squadron.
He was not observant, but said that as the first Israeli in space he would represent all Jews and all Israelis, and so he ate kosher aboard and asked a rabbi how to keep the Sabbath at sixteen sunrises a day.
He carried with him a small pencil drawing called Moon Landscape - the Earth as it would look from the Moon - made by Petr Ginz, a boy of fourteen in Theresienstadt who was murdered at Auschwitz. He also carried a miniature Torah scroll that had been used at a secret bar mitzvah in Bergen-Belsen, and a dollar from the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
His diary survived the break-up and a fall of thirty-seven miles, and was restored over a year by the Israeli police forensic laboratory.
He is buried at Nahalal. His eldest son Assaf, a pilot of the Israeli Air Force, was killed in a training accident six years later and is buried beside him.
He flew in the war of 1973 and was the youngest pilot on the raid that destroyed the Osirak reactor in 1981 - the eighth aircraft, the one with the least fuel to get home. He took a degree in electronics and computer engineering at Tel Aviv University and commanded a squadron.
He was not observant, but said that as the first Israeli in space he would represent all Jews and all Israelis, and so he ate kosher aboard and asked a rabbi how to keep the Sabbath at sixteen sunrises a day.
He carried with him a small pencil drawing called Moon Landscape - the Earth as it would look from the Moon - made by Petr Ginz, a boy of fourteen in Theresienstadt who was murdered at Auschwitz. He also carried a miniature Torah scroll that had been used at a secret bar mitzvah in Bergen-Belsen, and a dollar from the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
His diary survived the break-up and a fall of thirty-seven miles, and was restored over a year by the Israeli police forensic laboratory.
He is buried at Nahalal. His eldest son Assaf, a pilot of the Israeli Air Force, was killed in a training accident six years later and is buried beside him.
Keepsakes
Service Record
Foreign awards
NASA Distinguished Service Medal posthumous
Conferred by Congress
Congressional Space Medal of Honor posthumous
Also Remembered
Columbia
In Our Keeping
Permanent identifier
neuraspine_01m2gpzcxpab25zxpe9h3akdrd
Record added
September 14, 2026
neuraweb.nw
Stewarded by
neuraweb.nw
Last updated
September 16, 2026
This page is permanent and free. No fee to view it, no advertising, no tracking, and no account required. It will not be taken down.
Are you family? This record can be claimed and maintained by those who knew Ilan. Claim this record.
Shadow Box
Ilan Ramon
Aluf Mishne אלוף משנה
Israeli Air Force
Israeli Air Force
Be the first to honor Ilan.
Leave a Tribute