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Astronauts Day
|
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Observed by
| United States
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Type
| Day of remembrance of
NASA
astronauts
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Date
| Last Friday in January
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2023 date
| January 27
(
2023-01-27
)
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2024 date
| January 26
(
2024-01-26
)
|
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2025 date
| January 31
(
2025-01-31
)
|
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2026 date
| January 30
(
2026-01-30
)
|
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Astronauts Day
is an American holiday, dedicated to
NASA
astronauts and their achievements. It is a "floating" holiday, observed on the last Friday of January.
Overview
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]
This date was chosen
[
citation needed
]
to commemorate a number of space-related disasters which took place around this time, including the 27 January 1967 deaths of Command Pilot
Virgil Grissom
, Senior Pilot
Edward Higgins White
, and Pilot
Roger Chaffee
aboard
Apollo I
,
[1]
and disasters involving the
Space Shuttle
Challenger
on 28 January 1986,
[2]
and the
Space Shuttle
Columbia
on 1 February 2003.
[3]
Observants of this holiday are asked to light a candle in their window, reflect on the sacrifices astronauts have made, and re-dedicate themselves to a personal dream or goal of their own, a reference to a quote from
Alan Shepard
. While stuck in his suit for hours during a space mission, enduring technical delays, his patience gave out and he said "Why don’t you fix your little problem and light this candle!"
[4]
See also
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References
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