Fighter pilot poised to be first Israeli to soar into space

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- For 25 years, Ilan Ramon strapped himself into fighter jets to help protect the country of his birth, Israel.

Soon, the air force colonel will have a chance to view his embattled homeland from a perspective never before seen by a sabra. Ramon, a 48-year-old father of four, is going to space.

"Every time you are the first, it's meaningful," he said during an interview at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "Probably the fact that I'm the son of a Holocaust survivor is even more symbolic" than usual. "I'm proof that even with all the hard times we are going forward."

Ramon, who is flying as a guest research scientist aboard the space shuttle Columbia, is scheduled to spend 16 days orbiting Earth with six career U.S. astronauts, including an Indian-born engineer and an African American payload commander.

The launch is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 16.

Ramon and his crewmates have learned patience since they began training more than two years ago. During that period NASA has had to delay the mission several times to accommodate more-pressing flights.

The last delay, triggered by a fleet-wide problem with the space shuttle's fuel systems, lasted six months. NASA's caution, however, sits well with Ramon, who has made a career in risky endeavors.

Upon graduation from high school in Tel Aviv, Ramon, like most Israeli-born youths, was drafted into the military. He then attended flight-training school.

When he was 19 and still a pilot-in-training, Ramon was tapped to serve in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The danger, however, did nothing to quench his desire for flight.

"I love to fly," said Ramon, who moved on to A-4 and Mirage III-C aircraft training and operations before becoming part of Israel's first F-16 fighter squadron.

"Flying aircraft -- fighter aircraft -- is great and I was very happy." Ramon served two stints as deputy commander for F-16 and F-4 squadrons, sandwiching four years of college at Tel Aviv University in between his command posts.

He studied electronics and computer engineering, earning a bachelor's of science degree.

His last bout of schooling was a squadron commanders course, which prepared him to lead an F-16 squadron and then move up to head the aircraft branch in the air force's operations requirement department. Ramon earned the rank of colonel in 1994 and took over control of the weapon development and acquisition department -- a post he held until 1997 when a colleague called and asked if he'd like to become an astronaut. At first, Ramon thought the offer was a joke.

But with the blessings of the Clinton administration, former NASA administrator Daniel Goldin and the Israeli government ironed out an agreement for cooperative space ventures between the two countries, including the training and flight of an Israeli astronaut.

"When I was a kid growing up, nobody in Israel ever dreamed -- well most people wouldn't dream -- of being an astronaut because it wasn't on the agenda. So I never thought I would have been an astronaut. When I was selected, I really jumped almost to space. I was very excited," Ramon said.

In 1998, Ramon, his wife, Rona, and their four children, who were between 2 and 10 years old at the time, packed up and relocated to Houston, leaving behind a close extended family.

A few of Ramon's relatives and friends plan to travel to Florida to watch his launch.

"I'm not expecting a lot of people from Israel," said Ramon, who speaks fluent but slightly accented English. "The hearts and the souls of the people from Israel will be with me, but maybe not the bodies."

Keenly aware that he is flying as a representative of Israel, Ramon, who describes himself as a secular Jew, asked NASA if kosher meals might be available for his flight.

Although several Jewish American astronauts have flown in space before, none had ever requested kosher meals.

"I was amazed how they made the effort to supply me," said Ramon, whose lunch and dinner menus in orbit include such delicacies as stew and chicken Mediterranean.

While Ramon won't keep strictly kosher, he won't mix meat and dairy foods and will avoid shellfish and pork while in space. "Personally, I don't keep kosher and my family doesn't follow all the religious rules, but since I feel I represent all kinds of Israeli people and the Jewish community, I thought it would be nice if I could have kosher food."

The observance of Shabbat is another matter. Ramon said he never even thought about marking the day of rest and was surprised when some rabbis raised the issue with him.

The discussion, however, became largely academic, as the impact on Ramon's crewmates if he didn't work on Shabbat would be too great a burden.

A small debate began, however, about how to mark the seventh day, when sunsets are occurring every 90 minutes in orbit.

"I think the solution was that since we, the astronauts" go by "Houston time, Central time, then that's when Shabbat will be for me also," Ramon said.

Rather than lighting candles, however, he will have to content himself with running one of the combustion experiments planned during the Columbia mission.

He will be working with about 140 payloads in all, including an Israeli-sponsored experiment to study dust particles and how they affect Middle East weather.

Discussions whether to continue the experiment aboard the space station after Ramon's flight are under way. "We have a lot to offer," he says, referring to Israel's budding aerospace program.

As for his own future, Ramon is too focused on his upcoming space flight to dwell much on what lies ahead. "I would like to see my mission as my first one, not my last," he said.

Mindful, however, that his journey may be a once-in-a lifetime experience, Ramon took care in choosing the few personal possessions he is allowed to take to space.

Foremost among them is a drawing made by a 14-year-old boy named Peter Ginz, a Holocaust victim.

The boy had drawn his vision of what Earth would look like from the moon. "It's related to space, of course, and I feel like I'm taking his vision and his spirit of space," said Ramon, who selected the drawing from Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial after talks with museum directors.

Ramon realizes his own view of the world is likely to change after his flight. "When we go up to space, Earth is one unity and no borders are seen from there.

"That's the vision that NASA carries on and that is my vision too."