When Columbia space shuttle exploded on February 1st, 2003, Assaf Ramon a young boy who had just lost his father, Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut, said he is going to follow his father’s footsteps and become an Israeli Air Force pilot and ultimately an astronaut.

This past Sunday, 20 year old, IAF pilot Captain Assaf Ramon was killed in an F-16 crash during a routine exercise flight in Southern Israel, only 6 years after his father died on board the space shuttle Columbia.

Astronaut Ilan Ramon, was a highly acclaimed IAF pilot, who took part in the Israeli attack on the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 82′, and later became Israel’s first astronaut. Starting his training with NASA Ilan, his wife and their four children moved from Israel to Texas where the children attended American schools.

The Columbia tragedy made the Ramon family a center of media attention in Israel. Last June, the entire country watched Assaf Ramon, graduating with excellence the IAF pilot training course, receiving his pilot’s wings by Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Rona Ramon, Ilan’s wife and Assaf’s mother, has 3 more children, it would not surprise anyone if someday they to will want to follow their father and brother footsteps in the Israeli air force.