Speaking of the dangers of space travel, she said, "To me, there's a lot of different things that we do during life that could potentially harm us, and I choose not to stop doing those things." Of her family’s fears; "They've all come to accept that it's what I want to do."
After joining the Navy to pay her way through medical school, she served as a flight surgeon and dove with Navy divers and Navy Seals, performing medical evacuations from U.S. submarines. until space beckoned and the adventurous scientist sought a new challenge. She became an astronaut in 1996. This space shuttle Columbia launch was her first space shuttle mission.
Colonel Ilan Ramon (Israel Air Force), Space Shuttle Payload Specialist, was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. He was married to Rona, with whom he had four children. He enjoyed snow skiing, squash.
Ramon was Israel’s first astronaut, chosen in 1997. Security was tightened around this launch due to his presence. "I think the only thing that will worry me is the launch sequence and the systems and the launch, being launched on time. The tenseness is there because everybody wants to be launched on time with no failures. That's it. Once you're there, you're there."
While not religious, himself, Ramon, whose mother and grandmother survived the Auschwitz death camp in World War II, chose to eat kosher food in orbit. "I'm secular in my background, but I'm going to respect all kinds of Jews all over the world. For Israel and for the Jewish community, it's a very symbolic event." He also honored those who endured the Holocaust. During the Columbia flight, he carried a small pencil drawing titled "Moon Landscape" by Peter Ginz, a 14-year-old Jewish boy killed at Auschwitz and other mementos.
His family said he had been thrilled with being in space aboard the space shuttle Columbia, and emailed home to Israel that he didn’t want to leave.