The List Of Invited Guests Is Truly Out Of This World
The first American woman
to walk in space, the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission
commander, the first African-American to command a spaceship, the
first American to occupy Russia's Mir space station, and the
commander of the 1986 ill- fated Challenger 51-L have been chosen
for 2004 induction in the Astronaut Hall of Fame.
Joining such illustrious American icons as Neil Armstrong, John
Glenn, Alan Shepard, John Glenn and Sally Ride as Hall of Fame
inductees will be: Kathryn D. Sullivan, Richard O. Covey, Frederick
D. Gregory, Norman E. Thagard and Francis R. Dick Scobee, who will
be represented by June Scobee. The honorees will be enshrined in
the Hall of Fame during a May 1 public ceremony at the Kennedy
Space Center Visitor Complex.
Sullivan, as America's third female astronaut, made history as
the United States' first woman space-walker during her 1984
inaugural Shuttle flight when she and David Leetsma slipped into
Challenger's open cargo bay to practice techniques for refueling
out-of-gas orbiting satellites. On two later missions Sullivan
helped launch the Hubble Space Telescope and made an extensive
study of Earth's resources.
A four-time Space Shuttle flyer, Covey distinguished himself as
both commander of the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission and as
pilot of the Shuttle program's critical return-to-flight mission
following the 1986 Challenger disaster.
While he also flew on Discovery in 1985 and Atlantis in 1990,
much more visible was Covey's 1993 command of Endeavour on the most
difficult space repair mission ever attempted. He was also in a
high-profile position as pilot of the Discovery in 1988, when he
and four other veteran Shuttle fliers were the first to fly in the
redesigned spacecraft following the Challenger incident. Covey
currently serves as co-chairman of the Stafford-Covey Return to
Flight Task Group, which is making an independent assessment of
NASA's implementation of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board
Space Shuttle return to flight recommendations.
Gregory flew on three
Shuttle missions, the first as pilot of Challenger which shot into
orbit in 1985 with a crew of seven and a menagerie of 24 rats and
two squirrel monkeys who were along to test cages designed for
future animal research in space. He became the first
African-American to command a space mission when he guided
Discovery in 1989 on a secret Defense Department flight and again
commanded a military mission with the 1991 launch of Atlantis.
Since leaving the astronaut corps, Gregory has held various
positions within NASA and is now the agency's second in
command.
After serving in various capacities on 1983, 1985, 1989 and 1993
Shuttle flights, Florida native Thagard rode into space in a Soyuz
spacecraft launched from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome. The
spacecraft docked at the Mir space station, where Thagard spent 115
days, working on 28 different experiments before returning to Earth
aboard Shuttle Atlantis.
Scobee was the pilot aboard Challenger in 1984 on the world's
first mission to repair a satellite in orbit. The shuttle was
launched on a week-long journey in pursuit of the Solar Max
sun-study satellite, which had been disabled in orbit for three
years. The satellite was snared, refurbished and set free to resume
its study of the sun.
Scobee was aboard Challenger again on January 28, 1986, this
time as commander with six crew mates, when it lifted off on a
frigid day. Fifty-eight seconds later, a tongue of flame burst
through a solid fuel booster rocket, igniting a reaction that
destroyed the Shuttle and its seven crew members.
This year's inductees were selected by a blue-ribbon committee
composed of former NASA officials and flight controllers,
journalists, historians and other space authorities in a process
administered by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.
To be eligible for induction, an individual must be a U.S.
citizen and a NASA astronaut and must have been out of the active
astronaut corps at least five years. Committee members consider not
only an astronaut's accomplishments in space, but how he or she
contributed to the advancement of space exploration both before and
after his or her mission
This is the third group
of Space Shuttle astronauts selected for induction into the Hall of
Fame. Once inducted, they will increase the number of space
explorers enshrined there to 57. Earlier inductees came from the
Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz programs.
About the Astronaut Hall of Fame
In 1984, the Mercury Seven Foundation was established by the six
surviving members of America's original Mercury astronauts and Mrs.
Betty Grissom, widow of the seventh, to create a site where space
travelers could be remembered. Their dream was realized in 1990
when the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame opened. The Foundation also
sought to preserve the United States' leadership role in science
and technology through the provision of scholarships to college
students pursuing degrees in the fields of science and
engineering.
In 1995, with the realization the Mercury astronauts would not
be able to raise scholarship funds forever, the Foundation
broadened its membership to include astronauts from the Gemini,
Apollo, Skylab and Space Shuttle programs and changed its name to
the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. Today, the foundation funds
$144,500 in scholarships annually.