NASA Honors Veterans with Memorial Day Video

Americans are honoring the sacrifice of men and women in the U.S. armed forces on this Memorial Day holiday today (May 30), with NASA marking the occasion with a respectful new video. The video showcases views of U.S. military memorials set to music. 

"In recognition of Memorial Day, NASA remembers the men and women who have served in the U.S. armed forces and the sacrifices they've made to preserve the freedoms, safety and liberties of Americans throughout our country and around the world," NASA officials wrote in a video description

There are two Americans in space on this Memorial Day. They are NASA astronauts Tim Kopra and Jeff Williams, who are living alongside four crewmates (three Russians and a British astronaut) on the International Space Station.

Kopra is a retired colonel in the U.S. Army who served in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm before training as a test pilot and joining NASA as a vehicle test engineer in 1998. Kopra joined NASA's astronaut corps in 2000 and is now on second long-duration flight and is commanding the space station. Williams is also a retired Army colonel who trained as an Army aviator and served with the 3rd Armored Division's aviation battalion before going on to become a test pilot. Williams joined NASA as an astronaut in 1996 and is making his third long-duration flight on the space station. He also flew one mission on space shuttle Atlantis during his career.

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Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.