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Headstone of Ilan Ramon
Headstone of Ilan Ramon
Israeli Air Force · Israel Israel

Ilan Ramon

Aluf Mishne אלוף משנה
1954 – 2003
Aluf Mishne
Congressional Space Medal of HonorIDF Chief of Staff Medal of Appreciation
Lebanon War Campaign RibbonNASA Distinguished Service MedalNASA Space Flight MedalYom Kippur War Campaign Ribbon

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.
Keepsakes
Ilan Ramon
Ilan Ramon
Ilan Ramon, Colonel, Israeli Air Force
Ilan Ramon, Colonel, Israeli Air Force
Ilan Ramon in November 2001
Ilan Ramon in November 2001
Ilan Ramon's grave in Nahalal
Ilan Ramon's grave in Nahalal
NASA in-house videography of mission control during the final minutes of descent. Loss of signal between the orbiter and mission control at about 5:15. The flight director acknowledges the contingency at 11:50.
NASA in-house videography of mission control during the final minutes of descent. Loss of signal between the orbiter and mission control at about 5:15. The flight director acknowledges the contingency at 11:50.
Service Record
Israeli Air Force
Israeli Air Force
Awards & Decorations 6

Foreign awards

IDF Chief of Staff Medal of Appreciation February 1, 2003
Lebanon War Campaign Ribbon June 6, 1982
NASA Distinguished Service Medal posthumous February 1, 2003
NASA Space Flight Medal February 1, 2003
Yom Kippur War Campaign Ribbon October 24, 1973

Conferred by Congress

Congressional Space Medal of Honor posthumous July 23, 2004
Also Remembered
Columbia
In Our Keeping
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Record added September 14, 2026 neuraweb.nw
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Last updated September 16, 2026

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Shadow Box
Ilan Ramon
Aluf Mishne אלוף משנה
Israeli Air Force
Israeli Air Force
Aluf Mishne
Congressional Space Medal of Honor IDF Chief of Staff Medal of Appreciation
Lebanon War Campaign Ribbon NASA Distinguished Service Medal NASA Space Flight Medal Yom Kippur War Campaign Ribbon

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