January 12, 2003|By Michael Cabbage, Sentinel Space Editor
He left the air force in 1983, then a 29-year-old combat veteran, to earn an electrical and computer engineering degree from Tel Aviv University. While attending the university, Ramon met his wife, Rona, at a neighbor's party and married her after a half-year courtship. He graduated in 1987 and returned to the air force.
For the next decade, Ramon worked his way up the chain of command -- F-16 squadron commander, head of the aircraft branch of the operations department, head of weapons development and acquisition -- until the phone call came.
After discussing it with Rona, Ramon enthusiastically agreed to be an astronaut candidate. The Israeli air force chose him after a short selection process. Ramon, his wife, their three sons and one daughter -- now ages 5 to 14 -- packed up and moved to Houston. In July 1998, he and another Israeli air force pilot selected as his backup, Itzhak Mayo, began astronaut training at Johnson Space Center.
GOING KOSHER
Ramon doesn't consider himself a religious person. Nevertheless, he plans to showcase his religious heritage far more than several Jewish-American astronauts who have flown before him.
Ramon's decision to eat mostly kosher food in orbit earned kudos from Jewish groups worldwide.
"In Israel, we don't feel like we have to prove we are Jewish," Ramon said. "Outside of Israel, it is very important, so we decided to do it."
Ramon touched off a debate among rabbinical scholars by asking when he should observe the Jewish Sabbath. Jewish law dictates that the traditional day of rest occurs every seven days. However, the sun rises and sets every 90 minutes in orbit. The solution: Ramon will observe the Sabbath according to Cape Canaveral or Houston time. However, he will work that day like the rest of the crew.
Like all astronauts, Ramon will carry to space a few personal items, including jewelry, watches and flags. But one particular item -- a 60-year-old drawing -- has received the most attention.
Ramon asked an Israeli Holocaust remembrance organization for something to take with him. The group chose a haunting piece of artwork depicting a lunar landscape with Earth in the background. The picture was one of dozens drawn by 14-year-old Peter Ginz, a young Jewish artist and writer who died at Auschwitz in 1944.
"This is a fulfillment of his thoughts and the spirit of this young guy who was murdered by the Nazis," Ramon said.
Ramon also will carry to space another artifact of Judaism: several small cases called mezuzahs that contain tiny scrolls with inscriptions from the Book of Deuteronomy and that hang in the doorways of Jewish homes. The collection will include a special silver and copper barbed-wire mezuzah crafted by the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors.
AN `ATTRACTIVE TARGET'
NASA classifies Ramon as a payload specialist, a category reserved for one-time astronauts heading to space with a specific experiment or piece of cargo. But besides monitoring MEIDEX, he will help with many of the mission's other 80 or so experiments. Ramon also will spend time as a guinea pig for life-science research, donating blood and urine as well as monitoring his breathing while cycling and at rest.
"He is pulling as much weight as anybody on the crew," said Rick Husband, Columbia's commander.
None of the crew -- least of all Ramon -- admits to being overly concerned about security. But there is little question that the presence of an Israeli on a U.S. space shuttle makes the mission a higher-profile target.
To safeguard the astronauts, NASA is taking the usual post-Sept. 11 precautions to guard the air, land and sea surrounding Kennedy Space Center. None of the security arrangements are being made public.
"The shuttle today unfortunately is a very attractive target for terrorists," said Mayo, Ramon's former backup. "But we think the security will be there."
Will Ramon's mission signal an opportunity for other Israelis such as Mayo to fly? Probably not -- at least in the near term.
Although NASA picked up the considerable cost of Ramon's training, Israel's cash-starved space agency can't afford to create an astronaut corps. There already is debate among scientists on how to distribute Israel's meager space resources. Almost no one thinks it would best be spent on more astronauts.
"Longer-term, the effect of Ilan's flight will be on the younger generation and their education," Mayo said. "Hopefully, more will become interested in space."
Science notwithstanding, Ramon's immediate impact may be to provide hope and a brief distraction for an embattled country consumed with suicide bombings, a bitter election campaign, religious strife and a deepening economic crisis. That might be more remarkable than any research breakthrough.
"It will be very nice to see an Israeli fly in space," said Moshe Bar-Lev, president of ImageSat International, a Tel Aviv company that distributes satellite photography. "These days, we need good things to happen."
THE LAUNCH: Shuttle Columbia will launch between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Thursday on a 16-day research mission.
