Rona Ramon, wife of Israeli astronaut killed on shuttle, dies at 54

Rona Ramon, the wife of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, has died at the age of 54.

Ramon, a practitioner of holistic medicine, had been battling pancreatic cancer.

Rona Ramon (left) visits a school in Modiin named after her husband, Ilan Ramon, along with two NASA astronauts in February 2008 (photo credit: Flash90)

Ilan Ramon became Israel’s first person in space when he blasted off aboard the Columbia in 2003, but perished when the shuttle broke up upon re-entry weeks later.

Ilan Ramon (Wikimedia Commons)

Ramon’s son Assaf, a fighter pilot like his father, died in 2009 during a training mission.

After her husband and son died, Ramon set up a foundation in their memory and counseled others who were coping with tragedy, becoming a well-recognized public figure.

“We will never forget how you built from out of the ruins, how you endowed meaning in infinite pain, how your creativity filled the never-ending void,” President Reuven Rivlin and his wife Nechama say in a statement.

“Rona stood bravely after the deaths of her husband Ilan and son Assaf — our adored pilots. She fought cancer with the same bravery,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara say in a statement.