NASA Deputy Administrator Jim Morhard, left, and NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock, right, look on as June Scobee Rodgers, widow of Challenger commander Richard Scobee, Chuck Resnik, brother of Challenger mission specialist Judy Resnik, and Jane Smith Wolcott, widow of Challenger pilot Michael Smith, place flowers at the graves of Apollo 1 astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, and Roger Chaffee as part of NASA’s Day of Remembrance, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. The wreaths were laid in memory of those men and women who lost their lives in the quest for space exploration. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Former Kennedy Space Center director, Bob Cabana (left), speaks to Jane Smith-Wolcott, widow of Challenger pilot Michael Smith, during NASA’s Day of Remembrance ceremony at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. The annual event commemorates the crews of Apollo 1 and the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia. Marking the 40th anniversary of the Challenger tragedy, NASA Kennedy and the Astronauts Memorial Foundation, which was founded after the shuttle Challenger accident in 1986 to honor the sacrifices of fallen astronauts, hosted this year’s ceremony.