This yr marks the twenty first anniversary of the lethal 9/11 terror assaults within the U.S., which claimed the lives of practically 3,000 folks.
September eleventh was marked by a speech from President Joe Biden on the Pentagon, which was additionally hit within the assaults, and First Lady Jill Biden spoke from the positioning in Pennsylvania the place a airplane that was being flown by hijackers crashed.
“Twenty-one years later, we keep alive the memory of all the precious lives stolen from us at Ground Zero, in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon,” Biden stated by way of the president’s official Twitter account. “To the families and loved ones who still feel the ache, Jill and I hold you close in our hearts. We will never forget.”
Twenty-one years later, we maintain alive the reminiscence of all the dear lives stolen from us at Ground Zero, in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and on the Pentagon. To the households and family members who nonetheless really feel the ache, Jill and I maintain you shut in our hearts.
We will always remember. pic.twitter.com/IZlAmyone2
— President Biden (@POTUS) September 11, 2022
Former presidents shared tributes on-line, together with George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
NASA shared a poignant picture of the aftermath of the assaults, captured by an astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS).
Expedition 3 Commander Frank Culbertson took photographs of New York because the ISS flew overhead. The area company posted a sequence of photos, together with a video and Culbertson’s reflections on the assaults, to its web site on Sunday.
NASA
NASA defined Culbertson was the one American aboard the ISS: “As soon as he learned of the attacks, he began documenting the event in photographs because the station was flying over the New York City area.
“He captured unimaginable photos within the minutes and hours following the occasion. From his distinctive vantage level in area, he recorded his ideas of the world altering beneath him.”
ESA/NASA
One picture reveals the smoke plume above Manhattan “visible from space,” believed to have been taken after the dual towers of the World Trade Center collapsed.
Speaking about his vantage level of the horror unfolding beneath, in a letter dated September 11, 2001, Culbertson stated: “The smoke seemed to have an odd bloom to it at the base of the column that was streaming south of the city.
“After studying one of many information articles we simply acquired, I imagine we had been NY across the time of, or shortly after, the collapse of the second tower. How horrible…”
The next day he added: “It’s horrible to see smoke pouring from wounds in your personal nation from such a implausible vantage level.
“The dichotomy of being on a spacecraft dedicated to improving life on the earth and watching life being destroyed by such willful, terrible acts is jolting to the psyche, no matter who you are.
“And the data that all the pieces will likely be completely different than once we launched by the point we land is a bit disconcerting.”
NASA
U.S. airspace was closed for a number of days following the assaults, because the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights.
In the hours following the assault, NASA assisted in different methods, as the positioning famous: “NASA science programs were called into action after Sept. 11, 2001, as the agency worked with FEMA to fly sensors over the affected areas on aircraft looking for aerial contaminants and used satellite resources to monitor from above.”
Some 2,996 perished within the assaults, with 2,750 dying within the assaults in New York, 184 on the Pentagon and 40 in Pennsylvania, when passengers overpowered the hijackers and downed the airplane in a area close to Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Reflecting on the anniversary, Biden stated in a press release on Sunday: “Through all that has changed over the last 21 years, the enduring resolve of the American people to defend ourselves against those who seek us harm and deliver justice to those responsible for the attacks against our people has never once faltered.”
Referencing a latest U.S. drone strike that killed a member of Al-Qaeda, and the one which killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, he continued: “It took 10 years to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden, but we did.
“And this summer time, I approved a profitable strike on Zawahiri—the person who bin Laden was his deputy at 9/11 and was the chief of Al-Qaeda—as a result of we won’t relaxation. We’ll always remember, we’ll by no means quit and now Zawahiri can by no means once more threaten the American folks.”