Published: Jan. 29, 2004

MEDIA- PHOTO ADVISORY

At 8 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 31, CU-Boulder's Air Force ROTC will conduct a memorial ceremony on behalf of the Arnold Air Society for two CU alumni-astronauts who perished in the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle explosions.

The event will honor the late Ellison Onizuka, a former CU Air Force ROTC member killed in the Challenger explosion in 1986, and Kalpana Chawla, who died in the Columbia explosion in 2003. The group, which has been honoring Onizuka each year since the 1986 tragedy, decided to include Chawla this year, who died in the Feb. 1, 2003 Columbia explosion.

The ceremony will begin at the Regent Administrative Building flagpoles for a color guard ceremony and then proceed to Fiske Planetarium for a wreath-laying ceremony. It will conclude at the Onizuka Memorial located northwest of the Engineering Center for the laying of roses.

The entire ceremony will last about 45 minutes. Media and the public are invited to attend. For more information contact Christopher McLeod, public affairs officer for the Arnold Air Society at (719) 440-0901 or Jim Scott in the CU-Boulder News Office at (303) 492-3114.