CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Ten U.S. astronauts and Russian cosmonauts stopped work aboard the International Space Station Tuesday, joining people in more than 70 nations in marking the three-month anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America.
Precisely timed to take place at the exact moment -- 8:46 a.m. EST (1346 GMT) -- that the first jetliner slammed into the World Trade Center, the U.S. and Russian national anthems boomed out of speakers aboard the 17-story orbital research center.
Back on Earth, hundreds of engineers gathered in NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston, standing at attention with hands over hearts as the anthems rang out.
Clearly in view on the chief flight director's console: four baseball caps from New York City's police department, fire department, port authority and office of emergency management -- agencies that lost hundreds responding to the attack.
All added up, some 3,300 people from 80 different nations perished when suicide terrorists crashed commercial jets into the twin 110-story World Trade Center towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in rural Pennsylvania.
"In stark contrast to the international cooperation and unity in our effort to take mankind literally to the stars, we are reminded of our loss and sorrow due to the acts of violence and terror in an unprecedented attack on freedom, democracy and civilization itself," NASA lead flight director Wayne Hale radioed up to the joined crews of the station and shuttle Endeavour."More than 3,000 people perished this day three months ago, including more than 200 citizens from countries that are family members of the International Space Station program -- Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Japan and Russia," he said.
"Today in space, Americans and Russians together honor these dead. We remember the heroes that, disregarding their own personal safety, rushed to do all that they could, and more than was humanly possible. And we honor all of those who in the days since have put themselves in harm's way, far from home, to protect and defend us," Hale added.
"And we come to rededicate ourselves to the defense of freedom."
Outgoing station commander Frank Culbertson, who has been onboard the station with two Russian cosmonauts since August, noted that both he and his crewmates lost countrymen.
And in Culbertson's case, he lost a friend -- the pilot killed aboard the airliner that crashed into the Pentagon, who was a Naval Academy schoolmate of the retired U.S. Navy captain.
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Then, in a videotaped message prepared ahead of the event, Culbertson recalled watching the billowing clouds of smoke that rose up from lower Manhattan that day.
"The large trail of smoke off to the south, the pall of smoke over south Manhattan, made it clear to us that it was a terribly tragedy, that many lives were lost, and many, many people and their families were affected by what happened," he said.
Endeavour skipper Dom Gorie noted that the shuttle is carrying "thousands of items" to honor those that were killed in the attacks as well as those now waging a war against terrorism both at home and abroad.
Launched last Wednesday on NASA's first post-Sept. 11 shuttle flight, Endeavour is carrying 10,000 small American flags that will be distributed to the families of those killed in the attacks.
A poster bearing the photographs of the 343 New York City firefighters who perished also are on board along with the shields of the 23 New York City police officers killed responding to the World Trade Center attack.
In addition, a tattered American flag recovered from the WTC rubble is packed away on the shuttle along with a Marine Corps flag retrieved from a burning Pentagon conference room and the U.S. flag that was flying over the state capitol in Pennsylvania that day.
The ceremony aboard the station -- which is a joint project of space agencies in 16 nations -- was one of countless events staged in remembrance of the in Sept. 11 attacks.
President Bush convened a gathering at the White House for a somber recital of the national anthem and events also were held on the steps of the U.S. Congress, at the Pentagon, at Ground Zero in New York City and at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
Events also were staged in states all across America, and White House officials said people in more than 70 countries joined in mourning at the president's request.
"This is spread far and wide around the world, including Muslim nations, including Mideast nations. And around the United States," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters in Washington, D.C. "And it's a real sign of how the world stands united against the terrorists who have done this to freedom-loving people everywhere."
In space, the event was the second carried out by the shuttle and station crews. The seven U.S. astronauts and three Russian cosmonauts also held a commemorative event Sunday.
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