Astronauts Missing Man Flyby

NASA T-38's over KSC Three Three

Three days after the loss of the shuttle Columbia and the seven astronauts aboard, fellow astronauts performed the missing man formation in their T-38 trainers, passing over a mourning crowd of thousands of NASA employees and press corps gathered out on the runway where Columbia was to have returned. The ‘haloed’ jet is just beginning to leave the slot to represent their missing colleagues. The jets disappeared into the distance with a gaping hole in their formation – echoing Columbia’s damaged wing, and empty space in all our hearts.