Astronauts Day

Not to be confused with National Astronaut Day.

Astronauts Day is an American holiday, dedicated to NASA astronauts and their achievements. It is a "floating" holiday, observed on the last Friday of January.

Astronauts Day
Observed by	United States
Type	Day of remembrance of NASA astronauts
Date	Last Friday in January
2024 date	January 26  (2024-01-26)
2025 date	January 31  (2025-01-31)
2026 date	January 30  (2026-01-30)
2027 date	January 29  (2027-01-29)

Overview

This date was chosen^{[citation needed]} to commemorate a number of space-related disasters which took place around this time, including the 27 January 1967 deaths of Command Pilot Virgil Grissom, Senior Pilot Edward Higgins White, and Pilot Roger Chaffee aboard Apollo 1,^[1] and disasters involving the Space Shuttle Challenger on 28 January 1986,^[2] and the Space Shuttle Columbia on 1 February 2003.^[3]

Observants of this holiday are asked to light a candle in their window, reflect on the sacrifices astronauts have made, and re-dedicate themselves to a personal dream or goal of their own, a reference to a quote from Alan Shepard. While stuck in his suit for hours during a space mission, enduring technical delays, his patience gave out and he said "Why don’t you fix your little problem and light this candle!"^[4]

See also

• Cosmonautics Day (Russia and some former USSR countries)
• National Astronaut Day (USA)
• Yuri's Night