Rona Ramon, who lost her husband, astronaut Ilan Ramon, in the Columbia space crash in 2003 and their only son Assaf in an IAF jet accident in 2011, laid the cornerstone of an international airport baring their names in Timna, outside Eilat
on Thursday.
"I tried so many ways to memorialize him, and after the second accident, of Assaf, I took it to another place," Ramon said following the ceremony. "This is something far beyond the name, a lot more beyond the symbolism and value."
The airport will service large jets to European destinations, and is the first civilian airport to be built since the founding of the state. The 4-year project will cost NIS 1.7 billion and replace the current airport in Eilat.
