NASA's InSight lander brings names of Romanian band members killed in Colectiv club fire to Mars

NASA's InSight lander, which touched down on Mars on November 26, carried the names of the four members of the Goodbye to Gravity band who were killed in the Colectiv club fire in Bucharest, in 2015. The four were Alex Pascu, Bogdan Enache, Vlad Ţenea and Mihai Alexandru. In addition to several science instruments, InSight carried 2.4 million names from members of the public. In 2015, nearly 827,000 people signed up to add their names to a silicon microchip on board the robotic spacecraft. Last year, NASA added a second microchip, with another 1.6 million names. German Andreas Schönhofen, a fan of the Romanian band, listed their names to the InSight Mission to Mars last year.

“The names of Alex, Vlad, Bogdan, Mihai (together with the names of two million other people from all over the world) are added on a microchip. This microchip is mounted on the NASA InSight Lander. Launch: May 2018, Mars Landing: November 2018. The Lander (and the names) remain on Mars forever! GTG artwork and bandname is strongly connected with space travel and astronautics. That's the reason I chosen this way to honor this four men,” Schönhofen wrote in a Facebook post. Sixty-five people died in and following the Colectiv club fire on October 30, 2015 and many more were injured. The fire erupted during a concert of Goodbye to Gravity. From among the band members, only soloist Andrei Găluţ survived the fire. Goodbye to Gravity play The Day We Die in Friday’s tragic concert opening Three years since the Colectiv club fire in Bucharest: What has changed? Looking back at 2015: Colectiv, the Romanian tragedy that has changed laws and people (Photo source: Goodbye to Gravity Facebook page, Photo by Teodora Maftei) editor@romania-insider.com