Rona Ramon, widow of Israel’s first astronaut for NASA, dies at 54

Rona Ramon, widow of late Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, succumbed to cancer at 54.

By World Israel News Staff

Rona Ramon, wife of the late Ilan Ramon, an Israeli fighter pilot and the first Israeli astronaut for NASA, succumbed to pancreatic cancer on Monday at the age of 54.

Ilan was killed in the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003.

Rona also lost a son, Assaf, in 2009. An IAF pilot as well, he was killed in a training accident.

A social activist who promoted the education and advancement of youth in Israel, Rona subsequently founded the Ramon Foundation, which “aims to ignite the three essential values which Ilan and Asaf Ramon stood for – academic excellence, social leadership and groundbreaking courage.”

In 2016, she was among the torchbearers at the annual Independence Day ceremony on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

“My wife Sara and I express deep sorrow over the passing of Rona Ramon. Rona stood bravely after the deaths of her husband Ilan and her son Asaf, our beloved pilots, may their memories be for a blessing,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. “She battled cancer with the same bravery, but to our sorrow, succumbed today. We will always remember her and her splendid family. May her memory be for a blessing.”