Fallen Astronaut - Plaque

Plaque

On August 1, 1971, Fallen Astronaut was placed on the Moon by the crew of Apollo 15, along with a plaque bearing the names of eight American astronauts and six Soviet cosmonauts who had died:

• Theodore Freeman (October 31, 1964, aircraft accident)
• Charles Bassett (February 28, 1966, aircraft accident)
• Elliott See (February 28, 1966, aircraft accident)
• Gus Grissom (January 27, 1967, Apollo 1 fire)
• Roger Chaffee (January 27, 1967, Apollo 1 fire)
• Edward White (January 27, 1967, Apollo 1 fire)
• Vladimir Komarov (April 24, 1967, Soyuz 1 re-entry parachute failure)
• Edward Givens (June 6, 1967 automobile accident)
• Clifton Williams (October 5, 1967, aircraft accident)
• Yuri Gagarin (March 27, 1968, aircraft accident)
• Pavel Belyayev (January 10, 1970, disease)
• Georgi Dobrovolski (June 30, 1971, Soyuz 11 re-entry pressurization failure)
• Viktor Patsayev (June 30, 1971, Soyuz 11 re-entry pressurization failure)
• Vladislav Volkov (June 30, 1971, Soyuz 11 re-entry pressurization failure)

Scott, Commander of the Apollo 15 mission, noted that "Sadly, two names are missing (from the plaque), those of Valentin Bondarenko and Grigori Nelyubov." He explained that because of the secrecy surrounding the Soviet space program at the time, they were unaware of their deaths.

Also not on the plaque are two US Air Force astronauts who died in 1967, Michael James Adams, in an X-15 accident and Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr., the first African-American astronaut and part of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory Program, in a training accident. They are remembered on the Space Mirror Memorial.