January 30th-31st - Lori Garver of NASA visits Israel

The 6th annual Ilan Ramon Space conference took place on January 30th-31st, to commemorate the tragic death of Israel’s first astronaut on the Space Shuttle Columbia.  To show continued support for this event, NASA sent a group of eight representatives including Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, Astronauts TJ Creamer and Barbara Morgan, and several research scientists, all of whom gave talks at the conference.  U.S. Department of Defense Lt. Gen. Susan Helms (herself a former astronaut) also participated in the conference.

Hosted by the Fisher Institute for Strategic Studies and the Ministry of Science and Technology, many governmental, commercial, and civilian leaders in the fields of space, aeronautics, and robotics were in attendance.  All spoke of the increased need for collaboration between governments as the current fiscal situation makes it impossible for any one entity to bear the full burden of costs for exploration and research in space.  Another area of emphasis (evidenced by the many students attending) was the need to educate and excite young students to pursue Science and Technology degrees and careers.  Dr. Daniel Hershkowitz, Minister of Science and Technology, affirmed this by saying, “Israel is in space thanks to its human capital,” and it must work to increase its S&T experts in the new generation.

The NASA delegation certainly did their part for this goal, as Lori Garver and the NASA astronauts traversed Israel, visiting more than a dozen schools.   One special stop was the ORT Naura Comprehensive School, whose students won the FIRST robotics competition for high schools last year and traveled to Atlanta, Georgia for the international competition.  The school has a largely Arab and Ethiopian Israeli student body, usually underrepresented in Israeli Academia.  Barbara Morgan and NASA scientists Jacob Cohen and Anthony Colaprete also traveled to the American International School to give presentations to children of the Embassy community on what it’s like to be an astronaut and to work for NASA.