Reflections on the Columbia Space Shuttle / Eytan Stibbe
18—12—2021
MLA, the Head of our crew, Has been inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame / Eytan Stibbe
Travelogue: Eytan Stibbe’s personal blog
Eytan Stibbe: “As a child, on dark nights, I would gaze at the sky and wait patiently to see shooting stars. I would wonder: What’s out there, beyond what the eye can see?”
23—08—2021
Eytan Stibbe is a man whose worldwide business interests are focused on developing countries, particularly in Africa. Beside the obvious challenge of creating profitable businesses, Stibbe and his partners have set themselves another challenge - to improve the lives of people wherever they are operating. Their tireless work, which has included engaging international agencies to finance the projects, has brought progress to rural areas through the construction of drinking water purification systems, sewage treatment, electricity, health, education, affordable housing, agricultural development as a livelihood, in addition to creating households for personal use and so forth. This is no less than a revolution. Many people in the third world have seen their quality of life leapfrog several floors up, quite literally, undergoing fundamental transformation. Such a business investment is known as an “Impact Investment” (A profit-yielding investment made with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return). The profit is measured both in financial return and in social return.
The ability to make a difference in the lives of entire populations has inspired Eytan Stibbe to work for change also among the needy “close to home”. In 2016 Eytan and his wife Ora set up Anata, a Civil Society Organization of Public Interest, which supports social and educational projects and provides welfare services to all kinds of populations. One such example is Kiryat Adam in Lod, where students study psychoanalysis, and where experts provide subsidized psychotherapy to residents of the city and the surrounding towns. Eytan Stibbe was born in Haifa in 1958 to Alma, a clinical social worker, and Ehud, a Soil and Water PhD. Eytan was exposed to American culture while living in the United States with his family, where his father worked on his doctoral thesis. Upon their return to Israel they settled in Ramat Gan.
Eytan was recruited into the IDF in 1976, where he became an Air Force pilot. This is also where he met Ilan Ramon, Israel’s first astronaut. Ilan was Eytan’s commander and they went on to become close friends. Eytan served in the Air Force until 1984, and was a member of the reserves until 2019. At the end of his 43 years of flying, he was awarded a Medal of Distinguished Service.
In 2010, after Asaf Ramon, Ilan’s and Rona’s son, died in a flight accident, Stibbe joined Rona in setting up the non-profit Ramon Foundation, where he still serves as a member of the managing council. The Foundation has set itself the goal of initiating and carrying out educational programs dealing with leadership, flight and space. On November 16, 2020, Eytan Stibbe received the President’s blessing for a space flight as part of the Rakia Project, managed by the Ramon Foundation and carried out through Elon Musk’s SpaceX spacecraft. Lift-off is scheduled for the first quarter of 2022. Eytan will be staying on-board the International Space Station for ten days. Ilan Ramon’s subordinate and friend is going to be the second Israeli in space.
Want to find out more about Eytan Stibbe’s space flight? For answers to all your questions, for anecdotes on all those small magic moments - go to our blog.
“Curiosity fires the imagination”
Eytan Stibbe