Editing Ilan Ramon (section)

===Space flight: STS-107, Space Shuttle ''Columbia''===
[[Image:Ilan ramon sts-107.jpg|right|thumb|Ramon photographed aboard ''Columbia'' on January 26, 2003]]
STS-107 ''Columbia'' (January 16 – February 1, 2003), a 16-day flight, was a dedicated science and research mission. Working 24 hours a day, in two alternating shifts, the crew successfully conducted approximately 80 experiments.

Personally nonreligious, Ramon performed traditional observance while in orbit: "I feel I am representing all Jews and all Israelis." He was the first astronaut to request [[kosher]] food and marked the Sabbath.<ref>{{cite web|last=Konikov |first=Zvi |url=http://www.chabad.org/multimedia/media_cdo/aid/633325/jewish/Remembering-Ilan-Ramon.htm |title=official website |publisher=Chabad.org |access-date=September 1, 2011}}</ref> Ramon, whose mother and grandmother were survivors of [[Auschwitz]], was asked by S. Isaac Mekel, director of development at the American Society for [[Yad Vashem]], to take an item from Yad Vashem aboard STS-107. Ramon carried with him a pencil sketch, ''Moon Landscape'', drawn by 16-year-old [[Petr Ginz]], who was murdered in Auschwitz. Ramon also took with him a [[microfiche]] copy of the [[Torah]] given to him by Israeli president [[Moshe Katsav]] and a miniature Torah scroll (from the Holocaust) that was given to him by Prof. Yehoyachin Yosef, a [[Bergen Belsen]] survivor.<ref>{{cite book |title=Keeping the Promise |last=Lehman-Wilzig |first=Tami |author2=Craig Orback |year=2003 |publisher=Kar-Ben publishing |location=MN |isbn=1-58013-118-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/keepingpromiset00lehm |url-access=registration |access-date=May 2, 2011 |ref=LEHMAN-WILZIG_2003}}</ref> Ramon asked the 1939 Club, a [[Holocaust survivor]] organization in Los Angeles, for a symbol of the Holocaust to take into outer space with him. A barbed wire [[mezuzah]] by the [[San Francisco]] artist [[Aimee Golant]] was selected. Ramon also took with him a dollar of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi [[Menachem M. Schneerson]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Brown |first=Irene |url=http://jta.org/news/article/2003/01/27/9859/Israeliastronautto |title=Israeli astronaut busy up in space |publisher=Jta.org |date=January 27, 2003 |access-date=September 1, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111130160622/http://www.jta.org/news/article/2003/01/27/9859/Israeliastronautto |archive-date=November 30, 2011 }}</ref> 

Ramon and the rest of the ''Columbia'' crew died over East Texas in the [[Southern United States]] during entry into Earth's atmosphere, 16 minutes before scheduled landing.<ref name="nasabio" />